Federal Youth Court Program

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Youth Court E-update

Date: November 2004 - (Download PDF Version)

Topic: Program Growth

Question: For those youth courts that have been in operation for many years, what are some of the changes that have taken place in your program? In our youth court the most apparent change is a skyrocketing caseload (1-2 cases per month in 1992 to over 40 cases a month currently). Because of this, we are constantly recruiting adult and youth volunteers from schools and the community. The high commitment level of our volunteers is crucial to the success of the program. What policies has your program implemented to manage your growth?

Responses from Coordinators:

Mary Fleischmann
La Pine Teen Court
Program Coordinator
Deschutes County Sheriff's Office
P.O. Box 2035
La Pine, OR 97739
541-536-5002 Ext.
Fax: 541-536-5766
marye@deschutes.org

There has not been so much of a policy change as adding to facets to the court. I conduct a lot more training for my youth and volunteers than in the past, primarily due to the variety of types of cases we receive. We also continue to add more and more restorative justice components to our court, which again requires lots of training for volunteers.

Erin Andrejcak
Niagara Falls Youth Court
Coordinator
Niagara Police Athletic League
4455 Porter Road
Niagara Falls, NY 14305
716-286-7038 Ext.
Fax: 716-286-7037
ArtE498043@aol.com
www.niagarapal.com

Although we're not nearly as busy at 40 cases per month, during the school year we do receive a high caseload amount. In order to keep our volunteers stress-free and not completely busy with cases, and to continue to provide a top-notch service for our community, we ONLY hold court on Saturday mornings. Also we usually don't have court every week and we'll have multiple cases on Saturdays. Also, we don't take any offenders who have a criminal past, they must be first time offenders and under the age of 18. Before we commit to a case, we review it to make sure it's suitable and within our capacity. These guidelines usually weed out heavy, large cases, and it also keep's our volunteers happy.

Bobbie Tippery
LaCrosse County Peer Court
Peer Court Coordinator
Boys & Girls Club of Greater LaCrosse
1331 Clinton St.
LaCrosse, WI 54603
608-784-3345 Ext.
Fax: 608-782-3933
Bee85_@hotmail.com

Our Peer Court has grown also, and I have been mulling over adding another court date a month to accommodate additional participants. I have also tried more creative sentencing, such as jail visits, former-inmates coming to speak; we have adopted a highway to clean, and I have raised the program fee to be per ticket, when it was per child/defendant. This has helped bring in more revenue to the program, allowing for more growth.

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

The Owego Youth Court has been in continuous operation since 1999 and our issue has been just the opposite--we were faced with a diminishing caseload as juvenile offenses declined by (and have held steady) almost 45 %(!). To meet this decline we increased our jurisdictional boundaries to encompass an area with more juvenile offenses. We also added several enhancement programs to keep (some of) our volunteers involved; one of these is the Owego Free Academy Athletes Care program where varsity athletes are trained to teach character education to elementary students.

Volunteers have never been a problem; we recruit 1X per year. As of graduation 2004 had 93 members (as opposed to 18 members in 1999) all of these from one high school with a population of 750. We keep a very high profile at our high school and are invited in to speak (recruit) every year by the Social Studies Dept. I also set up information tables at school open house nights.

Elizabeth Adams
Statewide Expansion Coordinator
Office of Safe Schools and Youth Services
SC Department of Education
1429 Senate Street
Columbia, SC 29201
803-734-5801 Ext.
Fax: 803-734-0806
eadams@sde.state.sc.us

I wouldn't consider our growth in SC as one that has formed "policy" but I will give you information about how our state has experienced a tremendous growth in the youth court program over the past 2 years. In 2001, there were 5-6 youth courts in SC. Currently, there are over 40 across the state. With this growth, there has been a desperate need for additional youth court trainers. The South Carolina Youth Court Association applied for funding to identify and train potential "yc trainers" and to provide them a stipend for training new programs. This has allowed trainers to train new programs that are close in proximity to them.

In addition, to illustrate the effectiveness and good work of youth courts, the SCYCA also applied for an evaluator to evaluate the statewide YC program. Individual programs that experience a backlog of cases switch to the peer jury model which permits them to hear cases more quickly.

These are just a few examples of what SC has done to address the rapid growth and expansion of the youth court program. Please feel free to contact me at 803-734-5801 or via e-mail at: eadams@sde.state.sc.us for more information.

Mary Carrier
Polk County Teen Court
Director
Circuit Judge's Office
P.O. Box 9000
Drawer J-111
Bartow, FL 33831
863-534-4648 Ext.
Fax: 863-534-4098
mcarrier@jud10.flcourts.org

Polk County Teen Court began operation in 1990 out of Circuit Judge's office with no funds. We received 103 cases during the first year. Our teen volunteers served 1656 hours. We now have 4 employees and a budget through a county ordinance. In 2003, we received 909 cases and our teen volunteers served 3429 hours. We run two courtrooms with 17-19 cases heard each court session. We now offered college scholarships to our volunteers graduating from high school. Our sanctions have also expanded greatly. We visit all high schools at the beginning of each school year to recruit new volunteers. Hope this has helped.

Patrick Quillinan
Lincolnshire Peer Jury Program
Commander
Lincolnshire Police Department
One Olde Half Day Road
Lincolnshire, IL 60069-3035
847-883-9900 Ext.
Fax: 847-883-9909
pquill@village.lincolnshire.il.us

We had just the opposite occur when we sent all alcohol and drug cases (excluding tobacco) back to regular court. We had to do this as we had problems with our confidentiality commitment at the high school. Students belonging to clubs and/or sports sign an agreement that they will not become involved in drugs and alcohol. The problem was that a 17 year old (adult) would not get peer jury due to his or her age, and then have his/her name published in the paper and there would be consequences at school. The peer jury defendants were going through the system and not telling the school and we couldn't share the information with the school. Decision was made to place these type cases back in court and leave other cases for Peer Jury-which are limited.

Katie Self
Teen Court of Sarasota, Inc.
Executive Director
P.O. Box 48927
Sarasota, FL 34230
941-861-8460 Ext.
Fax: 941-841-8461
fatc@verizon.net
www.flteencourt.net

Our agency was developed by the Junior League of Sarasota, Inc. and has thrived as a non-profit agency, not that funding has not been a challenge. Our case load, from the original 80 cases now reached 800 cases annually while the annual volunteer corp consists of 300+ student volunteers and 40+ adult judges and attorneys. The population of our county, approximately 357,000, has five high schools. We handle misdemeanor cases, school rule violations, traffic court offenses, and felony crimes referred as a condition of probation by the juvenile court judge. We are not limited to first time offenders although a juvenile may only appear one time. We have a staff of two full-time case workers, one administrative assistant, a part time bookkeeper/clerical person, and my full time position. My position evolved from sole employee responsible for all case management and operational functions to now focusing on grant writing and administrative functions. Regretfully, I have limited involvement with the interview process of our clients but do attend all sessions so I can continue interacting with the youth and families we service.

I have felt the two main operational and management concerns have been and remain:

1. Maintaining the same level of quality and personal services despite the expanded case load.

2. Maintain funding to support those services.

To adjust to the rapidly expanded case load, the first thing we did was utilize the courthouse 22 miles from our main office. This not only facilitated the families from the southern portion of the county but also allowed more youth volunteer participation. Due to operating in that location, the law enforcement agencies in the municipalities in that area began sending more cases! We now sentence more than 150 youth alone in that area. Two high schools produce approximately 75 student volunteers.

The rapid expansion required development of additional staff and revenue. As a non-profit agency we operate with some distinct advantages as we can raise funds. Our first budget was $16,000! Today we have a budget of $360,000. From 1992-'96, as more Florida communities added Teen Courts, legislation was developed to assess a $3 fee on certain court costs that could be authorized by a local ordinance option specifically to fund Teen Courts. In our county that fee covered the primary expenses of the program, with local community grants covering other programs costs. In 2004 the Florida legislature terminated that $3 fee. They adopted some new revenue generating language but it is unknown if the same level of funding will be available through that resource.

Fearing a shortfall, our county commission, based on the fact that Teen Court had proven itself over these years by greatly reducing the number of cases that needed to go to traditional juvenile court, saving the court system more than $2 million annually, agreed to match the revenue, $163,000, previously provided through legislation.

In 2002 we added a component for youth referred for substance abuse crimes or who fail a drug test. This program called Camp X-RAYD-Examine Reality About Your Decisions, is a partnership with out local Police Athletic League and the county sheriff. We underwrite the expense of that program with local community grants.

To encourage volunteer participation but more importantly to award those youth who are the most dedicated volunteers, we developed a scholarship program, awarding $250 the first year. Today we hold one primary fundraiser, a golf tournament that kicks off Law Week, with all proceeds going toward those awards. This year we awarded more than $12,000 in scholarships to worthy graduating seniors.

Karen Green
Placer County Peer Court
Peer Court Coordinator
671 Newcastle Road., Suite 7
Newcastle, CA 95658
916-663-9227 Ext.
Fax: 916-663-2965
placerpeercourt@aol.com
www.peercourt.com

Placer Peer Court has undergone similar growth. We now do about 500 cases a year which represents over 50% of the juvenile citations in the county. We do a week long curriculum unit at all the local high schools (18) and that gives a steady flow of students. My staff recruits local attorneys to mentor the teen attorney. We have also implemented the Master jury model to handle many minor offenses--shop lifting if it's a small item/amount, curfew, skateboarding, no helmet offenses for instance. We've found the assault and battery cases need trials always. We've done 2 vehicular manslaughter cases referred from the DA's office==those are definitely the high water mark on significant charges. Mater juries allow for us to handle more cases on a given evening. We hold weekly courts and use multiple courtrooms--Master jury, trial jury, truancy and tobacco cases in separate courtrooms. No problem recruiting judges as we use attorneys as well as the bench to hear cases--every attorney would love the chance to wear the robe!

While I used to handle the entire program I now have 7 part-time staff working plus interns from the community college and volunteers from the juvenile justice commission.

Jean Griffin
Irving Teen Court
Coordinator of Court Services - Teen Court
P.O. Box 152288
Irving, TX 75015-2288
972-721-3601 Ext.
Fax: 972-721-2389
jgriffin@ci.irving.tx.us
www.ci.irving.tx.us/Courts/welcomet.htm

Irving's Teen Court has been in existence since 1992. In that time our caseload has increased from about 300 to close to 1700. We have added dockets to accommodate the numbers. We have court 2-3 times a month. Each time we have 3 courtrooms with 6 defendants scheduled in each, as well as a master jury with approximately 16-18 defendants. The master jury hears only traffic and curfew violation cases. Another change is tickets being written to 10-13-year-olds. When that started in 1996, we added a First Offender program to deal with that age group. Another change we've seen is a shift in the demographics in our city. The majority of our defendants are now Hispanic; in the early years of our program they were mainly Anglo. Most of the teens speak English, but we are enrolling more who do not. So we are going to begin using a bilingual adult volunteer to interpret in the courtroom for those teens.

We've never had a problem recruiting teen volunteers. Irving has five high schools, and there are always students who are willing to volunteer to get community service hours. Adult volunteers are critical to our program, and sometimes we face a shortage of them, but we advertise in our city's newspaper, and usually, we have a sufficient number.

Teen Court of Jefferson County Alabama
Kerri Peterson
Teen Court Coordinator
Alabama Center for Law & Civic Education
120 2nd Court North
Birmingham, AL 35204
205-325-4824 Ext.
Fax: 205-325-4882
petersonk@jcc.co.jefferson.al.us

Our program has seen the same growth. We retain volunteers from one year to the next, thus our volunteer pool is always growing. We have finally placed a limit on the number of cases we will hear each year. This is not ideal, but for now it is the only solution we have. Also, as your program grows your funding needs grow. This has been our largest stumbling block. Hopefully the responses to your question will give our program some new ideas!

Salt Lake Peer Court
Kathleen Zeitlin
Program Director
645 South 200 East, #101
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
801-322-1815 Ext.
Fax: 801-322-9732
slpcourt@Xmission.com
www.amsquare.com/lre

Like your program, ours has grown since its inception in 1993. The caseload has grown from about 45 cases in 9 months (we hold court only during the school year) to about 280 per school year. To handle the caseload, we have expanded from 1 courtroom once a week to 5 courtrooms once a week. We recruit new youth volunteers from the high schools in April & May for the following school year. We train them during the months of August and early September. They make a commitment to attend court 2 out of every 3 weeks for one school year. On average, we have about 80 students who volunteer each year. About 25-30 of these students are returning volunteers.

We also recruit about 40 adult volunteers who commit to volunteer for one school year. We recruit from the university and colleges as well as from our local community.

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