@Derek

So sorry to hear that Derek. Many of us had rough childhoods. My Father was never around (Was fighting in Vietnam) and whenever he would come back from a tour (Before being shipped off somewhere else) my Mom would tell my Dad how bad I had been and I got a beaten with a belt, and one time almost got my teeth knocked out.
My Dad is still alive and almost 90. We rarely talk about the past but our childhood situations can really mess some of us up.

That’s precisely what would happen. I was a ward of the state of Alabama from ages 14-19. The general rule is to place you with eligible family members as soon as possible, but they have to be approved. So the child in this instance would get sent to foster care, and if the child raises a fuss, they get labeled a delinquent and shipped off to camps. I ran away from a foster home and got sent to a series of juvenile internment camps. The system is pretty brutal there.

I spent a year in a hellhole called Eufaula Adolescent Center. That place was shut down for rampant abuses committed by the guards there.