There is just too much pressure to cut costs for them to lust after another dependent, in my humble opinion.
Well, difficult child is already a dependent of the state- except for the CS I'm currently paying.
I agree with you though. I have a theory on how they handle "delinquents". Their (county and state Department of Juvenile Justice) first priority is funding, especially with the current economic crisis. Their second priority is keeping control of the kid. I really don't think they send kids back to families because they think this is in the best interest of the child- not saying it's not, just that I don't think they think it- and I don't think they give a rat's hiney about what is in the best interest of anybody anyway. I think they do it because it keeps them from having to foot the bill for the continuous upkeep of the child AND it allows them control of the child and family. If the child is placed in a group home for instance, they cannot tell the group home what rules to have and they can't hold the group home accountable in court if the kid gets in trouble again and they can't make the group home pay restitution, etc.
So why then do you think I'm worried about them not releasing difficult child to me? because difficult child is a ward of this state and HI is pretty far away. If something went wrong with the plan of difficult child going there, the people in Department of Juvenile Justice here have to figure out how to get difficult child back here- that's a lot easier to do if difficult child stays in this region- even if he's not in this state. (IT took me a while to get the concept, but now I do- when a person is on probation or parole, they are still under Department of Juvenile Justice authority- as in, Department of Juvenile Justice still has control of them and can order whatever they want- they are just being released from incaceration and allowed to live somewhere else. For some weird reason, if a kid lives with the parent, they have jsut as much authority over the parent. If the kid doesn't live with a parent, they only have authority over the kid.)) But moreso- the GAL has an obvious real issue against me and is biased toward my bro. Between her expressed blame of me for difficult child's issues, Department of Juvenile Justice wanting difficult child to go to a family, but the need for the county to maintain monitoring/control- it's my guess that someone would call a hearing with dss there, I wouldn't be able to get back to attend, difficult child woulld be turned over to dss and thus- go to my bro.
They can't just give custody to someone else without a hearing or dss involvement but it wouldn't be that hard for these whackos to "make a mistake" or miscommunicate and give 2 weeks notice of difficult child's release, me not be able to make it, so in their mind, they are "forced" to turn difficult child over to dss and the judge has no grounds to intervene because I am not in the court room.
I'm sure that sounds like paranoia, but I have seen how the people here "work" for several years now.
If, by chance, they did decide to release difficult child but put him in a group home because maybe it's cheaper than incarceration (I'm not sure on that), I wouldn't even be able to afford to visit him if I'm in HI. If I'm in a nearby state, I can make some visits and get to court and they have basicly no justification for not releasing difficult child to me at the appropriate time. Except of course that this scenario requires me finding a job and home somewhere close enough to make this happen. They know all this is at stake- but notice how the PO isn't really trying to make the HI thing happen- and Department of Juvenile Justice is in control of difficult child so that's it- if I can get them to commit to difficult child being released in late Jan or early Feb and I can wait that long, it would be harder for them to justify not releasing him to me. Still, even though he's released to me- he (and then I) wiould still be under Department of Juvenile Justice control as long as difficult child is on parole.
Have I mentioned how I feel about the system and having 20-some year olds tell me how to raise my kid??