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Date:
March 2001 -
(Download PDF Version)
Topic:
Online Education Information
Question:
Lately I’ve had parents express concerns of the punishment not
fitting the crime so I want to look for take home or online
educational information that pertain to assault and
shoplifting/theft. We’re too small to hold education classes so
I’m looking for recommendations of who to use and who to stay
away from when it comes to useful materials for the offenders to
do a workbook type assignment at home or online.
Responses
from
Coordinators:
Hedwig
Village Teen Court
Lisa Reed
Program Coordinator
955 Piney Point Road
Houston, TX 77024
713-465-6009 ext.
Fax: 713-465-6807
hedwigteencourt@yahoo.com
Sorry,
I cannot help with this one. The only online class I
am aware of is for Alcohol & Drug Education called the Third
Millennium Classrooms out of San Antonio.
888-810-7990. They may have developed some other
classes by this time. Cutting Edge stuff. Good
Luck
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Wauconda
Township Teen Court
Elizabeth McGonigal
Director, Early Intervention Services
NICASA
31979 North Fish Lake Road
Round Lake, IL 60073
847-546-6450
Fax: 847-546-6760
emcgonigal@nicasa.org
The Street
Law workbook has some good exercises for retail theft. In
our court, we also solicit Victim Impact Statements from the
store that the youth stole from, and have it read at court.
The youth is usually required to write an apology letter,
and a 1-2 page paper on the effects of retail theft on the
victim, the community, etc.
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Oakland
County Teen Court
Nancy Ellis
Teen Court Coordinator
Oakland County Prosecutor's Office
1200 N. Telegraph Road
Pontiac, MI 48341
248-858-1553
Fax: 248-975-3832
ellisn@co.oakland.mi.us
www.co.oakland.mi.us
As a
suggestion - for sentencing for shoplifting -
They can
meet with a Loss Prevention officer to discuss the
seriousness of shoplifting and the effects of shoplifting on
the economy. We have volunteers at the JC Penney
Store, Target and K-mart - we have them contact the person
direct to make an appointment, then I require them to write
an essay on what they learned from the meeting.
Generally, the loss prevention officer takes an educational
approach - talks about the training and education that a
Loss Prevention officer has, the costs of all the gadgets,
security tags, etc. and how we are all paying for these
items as an added costs to all goods sold. They also
show them the cameras, talk about shrinkage, employee theft
and how a shoplifting charge it will impact their ability to
get future employment. Very educational - I have had
very good results with this, and as as Teen Court
Coordinator I attend the meeting if I am available.
Write a
1500-word essay on The Effects of
Shoplifting on the Economy.
Write a
1500-word essay on Victim
Advocates.
Go on
the internet and do a report on security gadgets that are
security tags that are attached to CD's clothing etc.
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Onslow
County Teen Court
Rhonda Leiffer
Teen Court Coordinator
P.O.Box 1052
Jacksonville, NC 28540
910-989-2362
Fax: 910-455-0977
teen_court@co.onslow.nc.us
www.teencourt.net
In reply to
your request for offender educational programs.
- We use The Change
Co. and our offender must complete three journaling
books regardless of the offense.
- For anyone charged
with Drug or related charge we hold a special
session on Drugs etc approx 6 times a year. (Local
Behavioral Health Company donates time for these
sessions)
- Shoplifting &
Larceny Offenders must complete the YES program from
National Association for Shoplifting Prevention. The
program consists of Home Study Program, Psychological
profile, with a Recidivism rate of 2.7 nationally.
Hope this
helps you.
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Wilson
County Teen Court
Linda Schenk
Coordinator
114 Blairmont Court
Lebanon, TN 37087
615-444-4516
Fax: 615-449-3282
blschenk@aol.com
My name is Linda Schenk and I am
the director of Wilson County Teen Court in Lebanon, TN. I
have been using the program called National Association for
Shoplifting Prevention for a while now and it works really
well. There web site is
www.shopliftingprevention.org.
As the director all I have to do
is call or email them with the respondents
name. They handle the rest of it including
collecting the $65 fee. It is a CD ROM
program that takes around 6 hours to complete.
After the respondent finishes and sends it back
in, I get a report as to how likely they are to
re-offend again. They are very helpful and send
very informative bulletins monthly. If you
have any questions please feel free to call me
at 615-804-5464 or email me at
BLSCHENK@aol.com.
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Lake County
Teen Court
Stephanie Glass
Coordinator
315 West Main Street
P.O. Box 7800
Tavares, FL 32778
352-343-9744
Fax: 352-343-9896
Sglass@co.lake.fl.us
We have a
couple of homework packets that are frequently used for
sentencing: Consequences of Crime and Consequences of
Retail Theft. They include definitions, reading
comprehension, case scenarios, etc… I would be happy
to email them to you. Good Luck.
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Youth Court
of Jefferson County
Michael Vincent
Youth Court Director
The Resolution Center of Jefferson and Lewis Counties
200 Washington Street, Suite 20
Watertown, NY 13601
315-785-0333
Fax: 315-785-0322
youthcrt@imcnet.net
www.jefflewismediation.org
Go online
to
www.streetlaw.org !
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Robin
Winkfield
Teen Court Program Coordinator
Administrative Office of the Courts
100 Millcreek Park
Frankfort, KY 40601
502-573-2350 ext. 2198
Fax: 502-573-0363
robinwinkfield@mail.aoc.state.ky.us
www.kycourt.net
I would
suggest farming out to community resource people.
There are different groups or agencies that are looking for
young people of this sort. For example, if you have a
Boys and Girls club in your area, I would try them.
They usually have different programs going on. I know
here in Kentucky (Louisville) we use our Boys and Girls Club
as a referral for Teen Court. They offer different
workshops such as shoplifting prevention and theft.
They usually bring in a community representative such as a
loss prevention specialist to talk to the youth.
Also, you
could try the National Crime Prevention Council. They
have various material on crime and crime prevention. I
highly recommend their Community Works material. Their
website is
www.ncpc.org.
I feel more
comfortable referring youth to various educational courses
than having them do work on their own. This way the
child will be able to interact with a group as well as
become more knowable of the crime they have committed by
using the community representatives.
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New Orleans
Teen Court
Lorri Fentress
Executive Director
210 Baronne Street, Suite 1240
New Orleans, LA 70112
504-593-1818 .
Fax: 504-593-1824
lorrif@hotmail.com
We have used
in the past Shoplifters Alternative out of
Jericho, New York. The number is 800)
848-9595 but you must purchase the booklets and
do reports on how the kids perform on the
take homes. It was unsuccessful here
because we had trouble collecting payment s for
the booklets from the families of the kids
having theft charges - which we knew would be
a problem - and trouble getting them to actually
do the booklet at home on their own. The
organization that handles this class instruction
also requires training of the persons who will
oversee the program. They are very
sophisticated in the administration of this
material. GOOD LUCK.
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Wilson
County Teen Court
Jon Herbert
Mediation Center of Eastern Carolina
113 Nash Street, Suite 205
Wilson, NC 27893
252-237-7061
Fax: 252-293-9969
jherbert@mceconline.org
www.mceconline.org
One of the
things that I do is, when a jury assigns an essay as a
sanction, I give very detailed requirements of format and
suggestions of sources for content. They are required
to work with an English teacher as a guide for the project.
This involves the school more and gets the juvenile thinking
about how to use school as a resource.
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Downers
Grove Township Peer Jury
Lori Wrzesinski
Director of Youth Services
Township of Downers Grove
4340 Prince Street
Downers Grove, IL 6051
630-968-6408
Fax: 630-968-7302
Peacefultoo@aol.com
www.twp.downers-grove
Hello.
I am Director of Youth Services for the Township of Downers
Grove. There is a program that I teach for first time
offenders who have been picked up for retail theft. In
that program I incorporate a home study program called the
"YES Program - Youth Educational Shoplifting Program".
It is a program by Shoplifters Anonymous out of Jericho,
N.Y. They can be reached by calling 1-800-848-9595.
There
website is:
www.shopliftersalternative.org.
The program includes a 30 page workbook, 2 CD's with
educational information, a psychological profile which
determines whether the offender may be at low, moderate, or
high risk for re-offending and recommendations for parents
on what to do at each level of risk. Overall the program,
for a homestudy type program, is a good program. It educates
youth on the impact of retail theft, the emotional and
psychological reasons for retail theft, and focuses on how
to develop a plan to stop. As an organization, if you
utilize their homestudy kits,
they will send periodic updates and information about
shoplifting. Also, they will do a report on the psych
profiles of youth if you send them in. This is a
service that is included as a user of the program and it
costs nothing to obtain the report. If you wish to ask
me any questions directly about my experience with the
program, feel free to
e-mail me at:
Peacefultoo@aol.com
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Martha
Tucker
Court Services Assistant
City of Irving
P.O. Box 15228
Irving, TX 75015-2288
972-721-3601
Fax: 972-721-2389
mtucker@ci.irving.tx.us
www.ci.irving.tx.us/courts/welcomet.htm
The
National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP) has a
home study program available for juveniles. There is a
charge to enroll in the program. Information may be
accessed at
www.shopliftingprevention.org .
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Chicago
Policy Peer Jury Programs
Clifton Underwood
Peer Jury Coordinator
Chicago Police Dept.
3510 S. Michigan, Room 4081
Chicago, IL 60653
312-745-5607
Fax: 312-745-6832
clifton.underwood@chicagopolice.org
This is of all youth courts in
Chicago.
We have 17
youth courts throughout the city, but a similar plan for
all. There are many variables that should be considered
before administrating a harsher punishment or sanction.
Since the location of your youth court is located in a small
area, you can be very creative when assessing punishments.
If there are not many stores in the area, a restorative
community based obligation to the store owner would be
perfect. Either cleaning or giving back to the community.
Also have one of your local police officers present for the
hearing. Have him to read the statute on theft, and have him
to explain that the second time it becomes a felony charge.
The understanding of the consequences and a little community
restoration should get them back on track.
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Lansing
Teen Court
Michael Botke
Director
217 South Capitol Avenue - 230
Lansing, MI 48933
517-371-2823
Fax: 517-371-2836
teencourtlansing@cooley.edu
www.cacvoices.org
You
mentioned you are too small to offer education classes, but
I would encourage you to offer some workshop format, even if
you only did it one time a month. When we implemented
our Street Law Workshop Program we started out small and
quickly realized it offered an opportunity to address
several needs.
In addition
to providing specific information linked to their particular
crime, conducting Street Law Workshops presents an
opportunity to provide adult guidance, build trust and give
them a chance to engage in activity with other peer group
members with similar issues to increase social skills and
self-confidence.
We require
all participants to attend our Street Law Workshops every
other Saturday morning from 10 AM to 12 Noon until their
offense is dismissed. If you would like detail
information please contact Lansing Teen Court directly.
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Pennington
County Teen Court
Michele Brink-Gluhosky
Teen Court Coordinator
Pennington County State's Attorney's Office
300 Kansas City Street
Rapid City, SD 57701
605-394-2531
Fax: 605-394-2616
michellebg@co.pennington.sd.us
Shoplifter's Alternative is a good program for rural courts
or courts not big enough to have a class. You can go
on their website at
http://www.shopliftingprevention.org/main.asp
I never used them but I have done a lot of checking on it
because I considered it at one time. One of our local
retailers used to use it. The program for juveniles is
YES and it is a take home CD and workbook. There a
couple of different options they have. Good Luck!
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Shasta
County Youth/Peer Court
Charles Menoher
Youth Violence Prevention Council of Shasta County
1700 Pine Street, Suite 250
Redding, CA 96001
530-244-7194
Fax: 530-244-6224
cmenoher@shastalink.k12.ca.us
yvpc@sbcglobal.net
Sunny California greetings,
For
assaults, we use classes put together by our probation dept.
on anger management. They are 16 weeks long. We
also use our local Chemical People and classes they have on
mediation skills, when they are available.
For
shoplifting, we are trying to get our local Bar Association
to buy a shoplifting curriculum that is for completing at
home. The cost is around $1500 and we will have the
respondents pay for the consumables they use...keeping the
program viable. The name of the curriculum is called "YES"..Youth
Educational Shoplifting. Email is:
sa@shoplifters.org
Hope this helps
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Volusia
County Teen Court
Shirley Santillana
Senior Coordinator
Court Administration
101 N. Alabama Avenue, Suite B253
Deland, FL 32724
386-822-5703
Fax: 386-740-5141
ssantillana@circuit7.org
I have a
workbook and would be happy to forward this to someone.
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Clark
County Teen Court
Katrina Eisfeldt
Teen Court Coordinator
517 Court Street
Neillsville, WI 54456
715-743-5272
Fax: 715-743-5120
katrina.eisfeldt@co.clark.wi.us
We use the
Youth Educational Shoplifting Program. It has changed
names a few times since I started the program so I am not
sure if that is still what it is. The phone number is
1-800-848-9595. The kit comes with 2 cd's and a
workbook. It is very good. If you need anymore
info feel free to contact me.
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Placer
County Peer Court
Karen Green
Peer Court Coordinator
671 Newcastle Road., Suite 7
Newcastle, CA 95658
916-663-9227 ext. 2#
Fax: 916-663-2965
placerpeercourt@aol.com
www.peercourt.com
I think there's a greater impact
in having the defendant deal directly with the
crime. Worksheets and online programs allow the youth to
distance themselves from the crime. We have had great
results with face to face apologies. I have the youth think
about what he'd like to say, apologize, tell the store what
the court sentenced, the impact on the family, friends, etc.
The security are wonderful in letting the youth know the
impact on the store and the employees. I always go with the
youth after setting up an appointment at the store. We use a
local mediation service to deal with victim offender
mediations. Again a face to face apology reinforces the idea
of dealing with the consequences of the crime. You may want
to check with your local law enforcement agencies as they
often have juvenile classes/programs.
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