Topic: Increasing Referrals

Question: Currently I am facing a dilemma about receiving referrals.  During the time period of November 2004 to May 2005, our Teen Court has only received four referrals.  Right now I am only getting referrals from the Youth Court Counselor, but I am looking at ways of receiving referrals from schools, but I am reluctant because I don’t know how helpful Teen Court would be, do you have any suggestions? 

Responses from Coordinators:

College Station Teen Court
Peggy Calliham
Coordinator
City of College Station
PO Box 9960
College Station, TX 77840
Phone: 979-764-3499 Fax: 979-764-3894
Email: pcalliham@cstx.gov
Website: www.cstx.gov/home/index.asp?page=1445

I receive a copy of tickets issued to all juveniles/minors each day and send a letter and brochure to the parents outlining how Teen Court works, showing benefits and requirements and telling them they may request this from the Judge if they meet the criteria. Plus my judge is VERY SUPPORTIVE and in favor of Teen Court. 

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Barron County Restorative Justice Teen Court
Linda Hedding
Barron County Restorative Justice Programs, Inc.
2850 College Drive
Rice Lake, WI 54868
Phone: 715-736-0940 Fax: 715-236-2547
Email: bcrjp@chibardun.net
Website: www.bcrjp.org

We work very closely with our School Liaison Officers in our local school and they find Teen Court to be a very useful resource for them....for school fights (& other forms of disorderly conduct), minor theft, property damage, etc. They usually write the citation but "hold" it, indicating that if the Teen Cooperates with Teen Court and successfully completes their sanctions, the citation will be discarded. This enables them to be restorative while enforcing "with some teeth" school/community rules & laws. It helps to have school administration "on board," working toward restorative practices in their schools.

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Taylor County Teen Court
Toni Matthias
Teen Court Coordinator
224 S. Second Street
Medford, WI 54451
Phone: 715-748-1435
Email: toni.matthias@wicourts.gov

We receive referrals from the juvenile officer, schools, the juvenile intake worker, and the DA. Schools refer individuals for incidents that happen at school...through the school liaison officer.

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Humboldt County Teen Court
Lynn Langdon
Teen Court Coordinator
Boys and Girls Club
3015 J Street
Eureka, CA 95501
Phone: 707-444-0153 Fax: 707-444-0915
Email: humtcourt@cox.net

The criteria for referrals for our Teen Court program are as follows:

1. Youth up through age 17 (at time of offense)
2. Misdemeanor of low level felony offense
3. Offender accepts responsibility for his/her action (admission of guilt)
4. Offender agrees to accept the sentence of the teen jury
5. Offender is appropriate for a "sentence"
6. Offender is developmentally capable of absorbing the concept of responsibility and learning from the imposed sentence.
7. Fist time offender, successful completion of previous diversion program, or at the discretion of the referring officer.

The last point is able to open up a lot of door for referrals. By adding the line "at the discretion of the referring officer" helps to add to the number of referrals. I tell the officers, if it seems like going through Teen Court would be the best way to handle the situation, we will look at the case. Usually if there is a questionable referral, I can always kick it back to them. The Probation officer does an initial intake interview of the potential referral. We do not count status offenses such as runaway or truancy against the potential defendant. Also more minor infractions such as skateboarding or tobacco violations we do not take into account. Teen Court is seen as a one time offer for more serious violations such as petty theft or possession of marijuana. One way that we have increased referral is by making a presentation to the Probation juvenile diversion officers directly, so they can ask specific questions about the program, and you then become a familiar presence to them, and a way to decrease their workload. Some officers may have trouble resigning control over some of their referrals, I simply comply with their requests and stay in constant communication with them on the status of their referral.

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Fremont County Teen Court
John Evans
Teen Court Coordinator
11th Judicial District Office of the District Attorney
136 Justice Center Road
Canon City, CO 81212
Phone: 719-269-0170 Fax: 719-269-0180
Email: jevans@da11thjd.org
Website: www.da11thjd.org/da.htm

In our district individual municipalities and law enforcement from the Sheriff and the Colorado Highway patrol are asked to file directly with the District Attorney's Office. The District Attorney reviews the cases and determines which cases are referred to the Juvenile Diversion Program. Our Teen Court is part of the Diversion program. The cases not appropriate for Teen Court or Diversion are sent through our county or district court system. It sounds like more involvement is needed from your District Attorney, Police Departments, and municipalities. We receive no referrals from our school districts. The schools are encouraged to file complaints with local law enforcement.

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Willcox Youth Court
Sally White
Coordinator
Willcox Against Substance Abuse
City Magistrate Court
480 North Bisbee Avenue
Willcox, AZ 85643
Phone: 520-384-4777 Fax: 520-384-1141
Email: wasa@qwest.net
Website: http://www.wasaonline.us

Although we are a small community, we average 2 to 3 cases each week. My suggestion is to meet with whoever would be your referring agent from the school (principal, counselor, etc.) and discuss with them which discipline problems could be helped either by your sentencing options or by defendants having to account to peers for their behavior. You might work out a plan where you would see a certain type of infraction - in our case, the principal refers many fights to us because we have options such as anger management classes or counseling that can produce change - also when the young people have to explain their reason for fighting (i.e. "she was looking at my boyfriend") out loud to a jury they often see their actions in a whole new light.

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Peer Jury Program
Terry Cannarsa
Peer Jury Coordinator
Blair County Juvenile Probation Office
423 Allegheny St., Suite 424
Hollidaysburg, PA 16648
Phone: 814-693-3230 Fax: 814-695-0260
Email: tcannarsa@blairco.org

I am one of several intake workers for the Juvenile Office.

All youth with charges filed(petitions) come to our office. Once the intake is completed and if peer jury is recommended, it is on the following basis.
- Usually first time arrest by Police for Misdemeanor, Felony or Summary.
- No major problems at home.
- Is admitting guilt and will pay restitution if any.
- Made mistake and say they will not do again.
- Parents believe that youth is sincere and agree to abide by jury disposition.
- Parents don't believe youth needs to be placed under probation supervision.

Letter is written to Police Department to find out if they have objections. They have 5 days to respond. Very few have requested not to go to peer jury. Unless another arrest pending or conflicting info from police the final decision is up to coordinator for a youth to go to peer. If a felony, letter is written to victim, if they object, juvenile proceeds to court.

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Village of Owego Youth Court
Eric Watkins
Unit Coordinator
Youth Services Unit
Owego Police Department
90 Temple Street
Owego, NY 13827
Phone: 607-687-2233 Fax: 607-687-2235
Email: juvenile@stny.rr.com
Website: http://www.owegopolice.org/YSU.html

“Been there, done that, got the t-shirt” and survived! A couple of years ago the Owego (NY) Youth Court’s referrals dwindled off to from 12-15 per year to zero referrals for an entire year (!). The decline in referrals was directly attributed to a steady decrease in juvenile offenses in our service area, which is a good thing!

It took a concentrated effort on my part to educate the community, police officers and probation plus, more importantly, the gradual transition from accepting only misdemeanors to accepting non-violent/non-drug related felonies. We also expanded our jurisdiction from the boundaries of our village (7.5 sq. miles) to those of our town (91 sq. miles), which in the end did not result in as many referrals as anticipated. Accepting felonies resulted our caseload more than doubling (not counting the year of no cases) from 12-15 per year to 25-30 cases per year.

Note: Primarily our YC referrals come directly from county probation but we also accept cases directly from police officers, parents and the school.

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Syracuse City School District Student Court
Judy Wolfe
Program Supervisor
Syracuse City School District
2400 Grant Blvd., Room 187
Syracuse, NY 13208
Phone: 315-435-6345 Fax: 315-435-4916
Email: jwolfe26@scsd.us
Website: personal( jwolfe1@twcny.rr.com)

Schools are always looking for ways to keep students in school. Suspension does not work, it doesn't address the issues it only gives a cooling off period for school & student, but in today's society, most parents are out of the home during the day and therefore suspended students are not being monitored, which can also affect the community if they are wandering about. By sending a student to teen court the school has another option. Ours is used when they've already tried detention, in and out of school suspension and are on their way to being referred to a superintendent's hearing. We hear relatively minor things, more nuisance type of charges, some fights. I have a paper that lists the reasons why teen court is a good option for schools to consider if you would like me send you any information please contact me at (315) 435-6345 or email jwolfe26@scsd.us. I work all summer.

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 Amherst Youth Court
Michael Torrillo
Coordinator
Amherst Police Department
500 John James Audobon Parkway
Amherst, NY 14228
Phone: 716-689-1344 Fax: 716-568-1182
Email: mtorrillo@adelphia.net

All of our referrals come from our department and we can determine the case load on any given court date. You might want to contact your local police juvenile division for referrals

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Parker Teen Court
Sue Ratcliff
Court Administrator
Parker Municipal Court
20120 E. Mainstreet
Parker, CO 80138
Phone: 303-805-3101 Fax: 303-805-3126
Email: sratcliff@ci.parker.co.us
Website: www.parkeronline.org

All of my Teen Court defendants are referred by my Municipal Court. When I was recruiting for volunteers for the program, the schools were all over it! I would suggest contacting your local schools and keep in touch with the Courts. Perhaps a formal presentation to them and some promotional materials will help. It has been my experience, that they more they learned about the program, they more they liked it. 

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Asheboro/Randolph Teen Court Program
Cheryl Benford
Coordinator
Randolph County Government
1520 North Fayetteville Street
Asheboro, NC 27203
Phone: 336-683-8227 Fax: 336-683-8217
Email: clbenford@co.randolph.nc.us
Website: www.randolphteencourt.org

We receive most of our referrals from the School Resource Officers. We receive them directly from them on certain crimes/offenses. You would just have to first of all talk with your Juvenile Court Counselors and funding sources to see if they would allow this to occur and then talk with the School Resource Officers about the program.

If you have any questions about my responses please feel free to contact me at clbenford@co.randolph.nc.us.

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Cattaraugus County Youth Court and Community Justice Program
Laurie Peterson
Program Coordinator
200 Erir Street
Little Valley, NY 14755
Phone: 716-938-9111 Ext. 2617 Fax: 716-938-6519
Email: LJPeterson@cattco.org
Website: www.co.cattaraugus.ny.us

Lack of referrals - I will take referrals from schools. Often, they are faced with a behavior incident which could result in arrest, but they feel that is too harsh. At the same time, the traditional school consequences seem too lenient. Youth Court provides excellent alternative. The respondents are informed by the school that if they do not complete their Youth Court sanctions as ordered, the school will then proceed with arrest. If that happens, they will not be accepted back by Youth Court on the probation referral.

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