TROUBLED YOUTHS SURVEY THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

Six jailed youngsters assess the candidates and talk about family issues.

Six young people sit in the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center, accused of such offenses as running away from home, burglarizing and child molesting.

Children's Express recently interviewed this group, girls and boys, black and white, to listen to their views on family values and presidential candidates.

All of the kids agree that open communication and trust are essential for good family relations. And they all agree that politicians don't understand the problems teen-agers face. But on the touchy issue of abortion, they disagree.

The names of these kids have been changed.

KIM: "I think (an ideal) family is able to communicate with each other. They ought to just work out their problems by talking to each other, listening to each other and trying to understand each other."

CHRIS: "(They should) sit down and deal with the problem when it occurs, and not push it aside and wait 'til it happens again. Just get it out in the open and deal with it right away . . . I would raise my kids totally differently from the way my parents raised me because I think that the way a child becomes when they are older is based on . . . their environment."

JOHN: "I wouldn't be as strict on my kid (as) a lot of parents are. Being strict on your kid makes them have to go and sneak, and that's when they really get caught . . . I would discipline them . . . (There are) certain things that I would have to draw the line on."

DAVID: "I would teach them to believe in God and do unto others like he wants done unto himself and help out people in the streets and love everybody."

KIM: "I would teach them to depend on themselves before they depend on anyone else . . . I'd let them know that I'd be there for them no matter what."

KAY: "(My advice to parents is to) be understanding and not jump on mistakes, and not shut them out when they really screw up."

KIM: "I feel that if you make a mistake (by getting pregnant) and you (feel) you can't take responsibility for it . . . you should (at least) try. I have a lot of friends who have kids, and I think that if they said, `Well, I couldn't have made it, and I could have an abortion,' they would have regretted it because their kids wouldn't be here today. . . . If you feel that you're not going to be able to handle it, there's always people out there like adoption agencies."

CHRIS: "My girlfriend had an abortion with her first kid. And the way I look at it is, everyone has a right to do what (he or she) wants to do." (His girlfriend is now pregnant with his child.)

JOHN: "I think (girls) should be able to have an abortion, because if they ain't going to be able to take care of the kid, why throw another kid out in the street? We got too many kids in the streets right now that's killing and stuff."

ANGELA: "I personally don't believe that they should have an abortion, because they took it upon themselves to go ahead and do the action that creates a kid. There are people out there who really do want a kid and are not able to have them, and so that's why there are adoption agencies. There will be somebody to love that child."

JOHN: "(As far as family values go) I don't think the government should have anything to do with a parent and their kid."

CHRIS: "(Politicians) have no idea what it's like to be a teen-ager in the '90s. That's the big concern, that the kids today are going to grow up to be leaders tomorrow. They've got to take care of us. (Kids are) out doing drugs, getting put in jail and (politicians) are not worrying about what is causing the problem."

KAY: "All these (politicians) come from rich families, and they are not out there. They are not talking to people in the projects. They're not talking to people having to work their butt off 10 to 12 hours a day just to be able to make it. They are not talking to the people of the '90s."

CHRIS: "Bill Clinton, he's getting out there, he is talking to people, he's seeing what needs to be done. . . . I don't see George Bush doing that. Bush's going to stay president because of the big war hype."

DAVID: "I feel that for four years, Bush has been president _ I don't really know what he's been doing . . . Bill Clinton gets out into the community and sees what's going on and deals with what's going on."

CHRIS: "If I felt that there was a candidate that would do good, then I would vote. Otherwise I would just look at it as, `I'm not even going to waste my time.' Because you're one person, you go vote for someone who you think is good, and you got all these other people who someone else thinks is good. You can't be sure of how it's going to come out."

KIM: "I would vote regardless of what other people said because I would at least want to know that I had my chance to say who I thought was right. . . . Whether he won or not, I could say I didn't help put him in office. I would vote regardless just to get my opinion."