Reply #12: This is a problem in every big city

[noonwitch]

Social services cannot take custody of a child without a court order, either from the CPS side or the delinqency side of things. Even if we did get custody of a teenager who is a prostitute, we can't lock up a kid who's legal status is that of a foster kid without there being a definitive psychiatric diagnosis. So, the girl runs away and is right back on the streets again. We put her name and picture on our website, we get writs of apprehension and the police pick her up and we go through the whole thing again. If we file a delinquency petition (which is actually a recent policy development in the last few years), the court generally puts the kid in the youth home for a few days and sends them back to the foster care program. It's a vicious circle.

In Detroit, there is an agency called Alternatives For Girls that has a van that goes out at night to do outreach with teen and young adult prostitutes, usually on the west side on Michigan AVE. They have a shelter, they distribute food and condoms, but they try to talk the girls out of their lifestyle and into coming into their program. They work with the police, too, and with DHS (us). There are also programs like Covenant House (which I know had a pedophile priest scandal a while back in NYC, but has been a pretty good agency for the last few years) and other runaway shelters.