MICHAEL (15) was picked up for, being carried in a stolen car. He is lone of nine children living in a house that resembles something out of the Third World.
His father, an alcoholic, is nowhere to be seen. His mother is - by her own admission - worn out. Most of her children would have been conceived in circumstances of rape. Barring orders have been unsatisfactory - she has no phone. Michael has been assessed as having a mild to moderate mental handicap.
Would he or his pals accept a curfew? "You must be f***n jokin' - to get slagged off by me mates? I'd like to see the f****r who'd try it", retorted Michael, his voice rising incredulously with every word.
But supposing the choice was a curfew or detention centre? "No. No way I'd be here every f****n' night." Some communities which have welcomed the curfew proposal seem to believe that it will clear the streets of all troublemakers after dark. In fact, it will apply only to offenders who go before the courts - a small percentage of all children who come to the attention of the law. Most professionals believe it has a place - but only in a tiny percentage of cases, and only then with strong support and back up for the parents.
A classic example of a parent's dilemma emerged in a Galway court a couple of years ago when the mother of a 13 year old girl was told by a judge "to lock up her daughter at night even if it meant that she had to be tied down or put in chains". The child had been roaming the streets at night and the State was unable to find a place for her.
The judge, however, ruled that the first person responsible for the girl was her mother and recommended that the probation officers, with the co operation of the mother, put bars on the bedroom window.
Blanket curfews (even for non offenders) and "parental responsibility laws" are enjoying rapid growth across the US, where criminal justice experts and constitutional lawyers have reservations but middle America hankers after the good old days. In cities such as Dallas, police have cited mothers and fathers "judged to have known" that their children were out late.
It may look good at election time, but some see it as a dangerous step, in effect allowing the state to set a standard for parenthood. And, ask the critics, what would we do here in Ireland to the parents who failed to match up? Build more prisons?