Should we charge teens criminally for dodging bus fares?

The King County Council is changing its approach to teen offenders on Metro buses, and will now stop charging them for not paying their bus fare.

The council unanimously passed a motion to change the law. Before, if some kid didn’t pay their fare and jumped on the bus, that kid could have been charged &#8212 criminally.

Now, the consequence is a civil infraction. You’ll still get punished, but you won’t go through the court system.

“I was shocked to learn that youth can be charged criminally for fare evasion on Metro buses,” said council member Dave Upthegrove. “Young bus riders should be held accountable for evading a fare but not charged criminally, and I am pleased that the council supported me in changing this policy.”

The council has called for a work plan to develop and implement the new policy by March 1, 2016.

Some people will jump on this and say the county is letting kids get away with a crime and that sends the wrong message (by the way, kids are rarely charged with this law as it is, so there’s no demonstrable change to the system other than fixing a bad law that could be abused). And I used to be that guy &#8212 a stickler for the rules. But then I started thinking about the implications of this.

Let’s say some 17-year-old jumps on a bus, doesn’t pay and gets caught. Yes, he broke the law. And let’s say you’re OK with that person getting criminally charged.

What if I told you this 17-year-old is low-income in deep poverty. He lives at home with his mother and three brothers, and he was on his way to get to a job? Maybe it’s his first job, which he took despite still being in high school. A job he took on to help his mother out with the bills, and he snuck on because the $2.25 was used that morning to buy his brother breakfast.

Now, you can still say jumping on that bus and not paying was wrong. Agreed. But do you want to throw this kid into the court system? A kid already struggling? A kid already trying to defy odds and become something &#8212 fight his way, work his way, out of the situation he’s in?

What do you think throwing this kid in the court system does? Fixes him? No &#8212 quite the opposite &#8212 it could have the effect of having him stop fighting so hard.

Should the kid be punished? Yes, I suppose. I don’t know what the punishment should be, but I know I’d like to have some leeway in how we punish a kid like this, versus some punk who doesn’t pay then causes problems on the bus.