A new approach to dealing
with curfew violators

Editor’s note: With a city curfew center scheduled to open in about a month in Frankford, the following story looks at the operations of a similar city center that recently opened in Kensington.

By Joe D’Aquila
For the Times

Approaching just their third weekend of operation, folks at one of the city’s newest teen curfew centers say they’ve been extremely busy and hope they’re making a difference in the lives of the youths they come in contact with.
The facility, the East Curfew Center, opened late last month in the Lighthouse Youth Services center on West Somerset Street in Kensington.
It’s now one of three such centers in Philadelphia — and one of two that are opening this year — as part of the city’s response to battling violent crime.
The centers are on a mission to keep kids off the streets late at night, especially those who violate Philadelphia’s curfew laws, but also to keep them out of the lock-up with serious criminals.
At the Lighthouse, helping the neighborhood’s youngsters isn’t a new task. The organization has been providing services to the community since 1893, with many of its programs designed to help and support children.
The addition of the East Curfew Center means an addition of volunteers, and volunteer recruiter Yanez Perez said there has been an outpouring of support from the community.
"It’s going great," Perez said of efforts to bring volunteers into the center.
"At first we didn’t get any because the word wasn’t spread around. But after the first weekend, and the first experience, everyone’s talking about it," Perez said. "We have calls coming in every day, people wanting to volunteer. It’s amazing."
The center is staffed by Lighthouse employees and a team of volunteers, and Perez noted there always are police personnel on hand to watch over the operation.
"We have been busy," she said. "We’ve had a little over twenty kids in the past two weeks."
Perez said intake specialists interview the children as they’re brought in to determine the particulars of their situation at home.
Volunteers take over next, Perez said, keeping the kids busy at the center with activities like basketball, pool and other games. A parent or guardian is contacted and must come to the center to pick up the youngster.
"We have a whole rec center for these kids," she said.
The children are also provided with a meal, and, if they wish, there is an area where they can get some sleep.
Perez said that for many of the children, the interaction with police and being transported to the center can be disorienting and upsetting. The volunteers work with the kids and try to make them feel more comfortable, she added.
"They’re not arrested . . . they’re not in trouble necessarily," she said. "It’s somewhere where they can hang out instead of being out in the street. Basically this is their last chance."
Although the concept of these centers aims to have a heart, the reality is that they exist to round up kids who shouldn’t be roaming the streets after curfew, and to particularly put more pressure on parents to know where they are.
Since the program at Lighthouse is fairly new, Perez said, she wasn’t sure what the procedure would be for dealing with a child who proves to be an habitual curfew violator and is repeatedly brought to the center.
In previous discussions of the program, though, city officials have said that charges could be filed after a third offense, with the additional possibility of strong fines for the parents.
Perez said the Lighthouse staff has already had to deal with one problem that isn’t easily remedied — a child for whom no parents or guardians can be contacted.
"It’s sad, but you have to understand, this is not some suburban neighborhood," she said. "We are talking about inner-city kids, and this is what social workers deal with on a daily basis, so this is what we’ll deal with on a daily basis as well."
Children in that situation are allowed to sleep overnight at the center. However, if staffers have been unable to reach a parent or guardian by 8 that morning, the youngster is turned over to the care of the city Department of Human Services.
"But we have someone on staff trying every half hour, every fifteen minutes, to get in contact with the parents," she said.
Actually, Perez said, DHS is contacted for each case, to inform the agency of a child’s presence at the center. But the aim in most cases is to keep the kids from having to deal with DHS, jail, or life on the streets.
"It’s just a way for the city to keep the children safe," Perez said.
The preference, of course, is that parents would accept the job of keeping their kids safe. Those who come to the center to retrieve their children are met by intake specialists who conduct interviews to gain a better understanding of the child’s home life and the circumstances that may lead the youngster to break curfew.
"A lot of parents come in, they’re anxious, they’re concerned about what’s going on, and what is a curfew center," Perez said. "But once they walk around and see what’s going on, and they actually talk to someone, they get a feel for what it is and they realize it’s not as bad as it sounds."
Even though staffers don’t want the center to be a scary place for children and parents, they also don’t want it to seem too appealing to youngsters caught breaking curfew, Perez explained.
"We don’t want to make it seem like it’s a hangout for the kids, either, where they can just come if they want to," she said. "We make it known that it is not necessarily a punishment, but this is not somewhere you would want to be again."
Philadelphia Mayor John Street has touted the curfew centers as part of an overall plan to help reduce crime, particularly among the city’s youth. The first center opened last year in South Philadelphia; another is nearing readiness at the Frankford Group Ministry in the Lower Northeast.
The centers operate under tougher curfew laws enacted earlier this year for children 13 and under.
The citywide curfew for kids in that age group is 9 p.m. on weekdays during the school year and 9:30 p.m. on summer weekdays.
On weekends at any time of year, they are permitted to be out until 10 p.m.
Teens from 13 to 17 years of age may be out until 10:30 on weeknights and midnight on weekends.
The Street administration has used the first curfew center in South Philadelphia as a success story, claiming that juvenile violence and shootings, in particular, have dropped significantly in the 1st and 17th police districts since the center’s debut.
The Lighthouse is serving the 24th district and part of the 25th, which fall within the 7th Councilmanic District newly represented by Councilman Dan Savage, who said he is pleased with the addition to his neighborhood.
"I think it’s a great thing," Savage said. "And I think it will be a great success."
He also is looking forward to the Frankford center that is scheduled to open later this month at Griscom and Orthodox streets, serving neighborhoods in the 15th Police District.
It very well could be that new staffers there will look to the Lighthouse volunteers for guidance as they try to establish that center in the Frankford area. ••