By
Sharon J. Zehner
Ms.
Zehner is the Director of Bay County Teen Court in Panama
City, Florida.
Teen Court augments
traditional juvenile courts by providing a forum for first-time
youthful offenders to be judged by their peers.
Newspaper headlines
and television broadcasts have chronicled the ominously
sharp rise in juvenile crime that occurred during the past
several years. While everyone agrees that rising levels
of juvenile crime represent a serious threat to the quality
of life in communities around the country, little consensus
exists regarding the best way to respond to this profound
problem. The debate, no doubt, will continue for years to
come. However, some promising programs already have proven
effective in curtailing youth crime. Among these is Teen
Court, a program that uses the undeniable power of peer
pressure as a positive, rather than negative, force to help
convince youthful troublemakers that crime yields serious
consequences. Teen Court also provides law enforcement agen-
cies a unique opportunity to help guide at-risk youths away
from crime at a time when they are particularly impressionable.
In states where
Teen Court is in place, youths who complete the program
re-offend at a much lower rate than do youths tried and
sentenced in juvenile courts.1 The program also represents
a cost-effective alternative to traditional court processing
because Teen Court relies largely on volunteers. While Teen
Court is not designed to replace municipal juvenile courts,
it does offer a highly structured and effective means to
guide some youths away from trouble by showing them that
criminal activity has both immediate and long-term consequences.
Background
From its relatively
inauspicious beginnings in rural Texas 20 years ago, Teen
Court-also known as Youth Court and Peer Court in various
parts of the country-has grown into a nationwide network
of programs, each uniquely tailored to meet the needs of
its hometown community. Today, 250 Teen Court programs exist
in 30 states.
The central feature
of the Teen Court approach is that youthful first-time offenders
charged with a misdemeanor offense receive judgment from
their peers. During Teen Court hearings, teenage volunteers
act as court clerks, bailiffs, and jurors, as well as attorneys
for the prosecution and defense.
Defendants may
receive a wide range of sentences, mirroring both the criminal
and punitive sanctions handed down in juvenile and adult
courts. Defendants must complete their sentences within
30 days. Those who do not meet the terms in this time frame
are remanded to juvenile court.
Approximately
20 distinct Teen Court programs currently operate in the
State of Florida. This article focuses on the program in
Bay County, which includes Panama City and several smaller
municipalities. Most of the features and principles discussed,
however, apply to Teen Court programs in place throughout
the country.
The Process
On any given
Tuesday evening in Panama City, six or seven juvenile defendants
nervously pace the hallways of the Juvenile Court Building
as they await their Teen Court hearings. Inside the courtroom,
the Teen Court director and her staff coordinate the activities
of over 20 students volunteering for the evening. The student
defense attorneys, all of whom are in high school, have
just 1 hour to meet with their clients and prepare a defense
strategy.
While the hands
of the defense attorneys are somewhat tied-all Teen Court
defendants must plead guilty in order to participate in
the program-the student lawyers focus on their clients'
character, grades, school behavior, attitude, and any mitigating
circumstances that jurors should consider when they debate
possible sentences. Across the hall, student prosecuting
attorneys use the hour to prepare their cases. Volunteer
adult attorneys roam among the prosecution and defense teams,
offering advice as needed.
Meanwhile, the
director's staff sits in the main courtroom, answering questions,
collecting essays and apology letters from previous defendants,
and selecting the juries for this evening's hearings. Each
jury consists of student volunteers and defendants who are
currently serving their sentences. An equitable mix of jurors
is important, given the tendency of some defendant-jurors
to impose harsh sentences on the defendants whom they judge.
Student volunteers do not share that philosophy. Because
a unanimous verdict is required before juries can stop deliberations,
the jurors learn to compromise and build a consensus when
arriving at a sentence.
Just before 5
p.m., the student attorneys, as well as their clients and
parents, return to the main courtroom to await the arrival
of the judge. A Bay County Administrative Juvenile Judge
initiated the Bay County Teen Court program in Panama City
several years ago. Today, this judge and several circuit
and county judges volunteer to sit on the bench each week.
Announced by the bailiff, who is a member of the Bay County
Sheriff's Explorer's Program, the judge leads the court
through the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence.
All present then recite the Teen Court Oath of Confidentiality,
pledging to "... keep secret all said proceedings"
held in their presence. The sensitive nature of the cases
discussed in Teen Court and the fact that the defendants
are juveniles dictate that the oath be strictly enforced
and adhered to by all volunteers and members of the program
staff.
From this point,
the Teen Court session proceeds like any other court hearing.
The bailiff swears in the members of the jury and announces
the first case. Both sets of attorneys then make opening
statements.
Following the
statements and any initial appeals from the defense or prosecution
teams, the student clerk swears in the defendant, who takes
the stand. The prosecution and defense attorneys then question
the defendant and can request the opportunity to cross-examine
the defendant or redirect questions, following questioning
from the opposing counsel. At the conclusion of the testimony,
the attorneys make closing statements and sentencing recommendations.
The judge then dismisses the jury, accompanied by an adult
volunteer, to deliberate.
While in the
jury room, the jury selects a foreperson who leads the jurors
in a discussion of the evidence and facts presented by both
sides. Simultaneously in the main courtroom, a second set
of attorneys begins its case with another defendant. At
the conclusion of the second hearing, the jury from the
first hearing returns to the courtroom to deliver its sentence.
As it does so, the jury from the second hearing is escorted
out of the courtroom and the process begins anew. Once the
verdict has been delivered, the judge calls the defendant
and the defendant's parents to the bench for instructions.
The judge reminds the youth that participating in the Teen
Court process is a privilege and that failure to complete
the court's sanctions will result in the case being transferred
to juvenile court. The judge then informs the parents that
they are responsible for reporting all infractions to the
Teen Court director.
Immediately after
the courtroom proceeding, the juvenile and parents meet
with uniformed offi-cers from the Panama City Police Department's
community services division, who explain the terms of the
sanctions. These officers, trained in the intricacies of
the Teen Court program, can answer specific questions concerning
the terms of the sentencing contract. The officers develop
deadlines for each of the juvenile's sanctions and provide
the youth with a community service contract. Once the paperwork
is signed, the family is released, and the juvenile's 30
days begin counting down.
Sanctions and
Counseling
The Teen Court
philosophy takes a two-track approach to sentencing. Defendants
receive sanctions designed to punish their misdeeds. The
program also mandates that defendants and their parents
participate in counseling to help them understand the Teen
Court process and appreciate the potentially far-reaching
consequences of antisocial and criminal behavior. Sanctions
for criminal cases heard in Bay County Teen Court can range
from a prescribed number of community service hours, to
curfews, to monetary restitution for victims. In addition
to any other sanction imposed, each youth must complete
a 7-hour workday supervised by the Panama City Police Department's
community services division. During these workdays, the
juveniles complete a variety of tasks, ranging from cleaning
playgrounds in local housing complexes to scrubbing bathrooms
and floors at the building used for the police department's
after-school program for underprivileged children.
Defendants primarily
complete community service hours at several area middle
and high school sites after school, 3 days a week, and on
Saturdays. Youths have painted the inside and outside of
two local high schools, cleared away rubble from a demolished
building at the Humane Society, decorated a police department
float for the annual Christmas parade, and sorted Christmas
toys for needy children.
Each defendant
also must serve on a jury, ensuring a constant pool of jurors
for future defendants. As with all participants of the Teen
Court program, defendant-jurors must observe a strict dress
code-no shorts, message T-shirts, short skirts, etc.-and
must remain inside the courtroom for the duration of the
session.
If the defendant's
sentence involves restitution of any type, payment must
be made to the Teen Court office within 30 days of sentencing.
Typical restitution claims involve medical bills for battery
victims and reimbursement for stolen goods. Teen Court defendants
also can be required to write letters of apology to their
victims, as well as to their own parents. To strengthen
the impact of this sentence, the youths often must deliver
the apologies in person.
Defendants also
can be sentenced to write detailed essays, up to 5 pages
in length, on topics relating to the crimes they committed.
A typical paper might be titled "How Stealing Affects
the Economy." Defendants caught dealing drugs often
are sentenced to write essays about drugs and the importance
of resisting peer pressure.
Youths placed
on curfew or house arrest must be available to answer random
telephone calls from the Teen Court director. Juveniles
on house arrest may leave their homes only to go to school,
work, church, or court, unless physically accompanied by
a parent.
All families
must attend a 3-hour session with the staff of Anchorage
Children's Home, one of the county's social service agencies.
The counseling session focuses on helping families understand,
and cope with, the Teen Court process. At the conclusion
of the mandatory session, the defend-ants and their parents
view a videotape titled Life Inside. The video provides
a realistic view of life in correctional institutions and
features narration by inmates sentenced to state prisons
for drug convictions or violent felonies.
Defendants then
tour a local jail. The video and brief onsite tours generally
get the intended message across to younger, less-hardened
defendants. For those who require a stronger message, Teen
Court worked with the Bay County Sheriff's Office Boot Camp
to accommodate a 2-hour tour of the facility.
Defendants touring
the boot camp spend the first hour walking through the facility
and learning about the inmates' rigorous daily schedules.
Afterwards, defendants line up in the dormitory area, where
several drill instructors subject them to an hour of "in
your face" shock incarceration. Previously supplied
with notes detailing each defend-ant's behavior and attitude
problems, the volunteer instructors seek to break down the
youths' defense systems. Nearly all defendants emerge from
this exercise visibly upset, including street-smart teens
who repeatedly declared themselves unreachable.
Monitoring
The director
and an assistant monitor all active Teen Court cases on
a daily basis. If a juvenile misses a deadline for community
service hours or written sanctions, the director immediately
issues a warning letter, giving the defendant 10 days to
rectify the situation. Juveniles who do not comply with
the terms of the warning have their Teen Court cases closed
and referred to juvenile court. Likewise, defendants placed
on house arrest or given a curfew remain subject to random
calls from the Teen Court director for the duration of their
sentences.
Violators are
immediately removed from the Teen Court program and their
cases referred to juvenile court. The same is true for defendants
who fail random drug tests.
Law enforcement
officers receive notification of the sanctions imposed on
the youths they referred to Teen Court. The Teen Court office
elicits officers' opinions regarding the sentences imposed
and asks the officers to provide a monthly critique of the
program. The office also advises officers when a referred
defendant completes the program or when a juvenile is removed
for noncompliance.
Results
At the conclusion
of their 30-day allotment to fulfill the terms of their
sentences, juveniles have either completed the program or
have been removed from it. Those who complete the program
are invited to the Teen Court office to destroy their referring
affidavits and can resume their lives without a criminal
record.
Approximately
40 percent of the defendants who complete Bay County's program
accept the standing invitation to return to the program
as court volunteers. Those who do not complete the program
hear from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice regarding
an impending appearance in juvenile court.
Nationally, nearly
95 percent of the juveniles accepted into Teen Court complete
the program and do not re-offend within a 12-month period.2
Bay County's figures mirror the national success rate with
more than 90 percent of juveniles referred completing the
program and less than 10 percent of defendants re-offending
within the 12-month, postcompletion tracking period.3 Low
recidivism rates are matched by the fiscal soundness of
Teen Court. Typically, communities spend about $3,000 to
process a child through the juvenile court system, from
arrest to probation. On average, it costs less than $300
to process a child through Teen Court.
Although low
recidivism rates and cost-effectiveness make Teen Court
a viable supplement to the existing juvenile court system
in many communities, the real measure of success is the
degree to which the lives of defendants are changed by the
Teen Court process. While completing their sentences, defendants
often bring notes to the Teen Court office, written by appreciative
teachers and school administrators, commending the students
for their good behavior and improved grades. For many of
the students, these notes represent the first successes
of their young lives. Just a taste of genuine praise is
all many of these youths need to help convince them to make
serious life-enhancing decisions about their attitudes and
behavior.
Parents of former
defendants also voice overwhelming support for the program.
In Bay County, the Teen Court office mails parents an evaluation
form when their child has completed his or her prescribed
sanctions. In recent surveys, 78 percent of responding parents
rate the program "very effective," compared to
14 percent who rate the program "somewhat effective."
Only eight percent of the respondents report that the program
did not help their child.
Cooperation
Teen Court cannot
operate successfully in a vacuum. A partnership among law
enforcement, the judiciary, and the school system must exist
for Teen Court to work as it is designed. To ensure a quality
partnership from the outset, the judge who initiated the
Bay County program began with a volunteer board of directors
comprised of stakeholders in juvenile justice issues from
throughout the community. Currently, the Teen Court board
consists of attorneys, business people, teachers, law enforcement
officers, and concerned citizens, as well as representatives
from the state attorney's office and the Florida Department
of Juvenile Justice.
The Law Enforcement
Role
For local law
enforcement officers in Bay County, cooperation with Teen
Court is a rewarding experience. Involvement with Teen Court
furthers agencies' community policing efforts, while it
gives officers the opportunity to be part of a solution
to juvenile crime.
Currently, all
officers in the Panama City Police Department receive basic
instruction about the Teen Court program. Personnel from
all units-including detective squads-are encouraged to refer
first-time juvenile offenders who meet the program's requirements
to Teen Court.
Officers in the
department's community services division, as well as school
resource officers from the Bay County Sheriff's Department,
receive more specialized training concerning the terms of
Teen Court contracts. Upon observing several Teen Court
trials, the officers and deputies can then begin guiding
defendants through the intricacies of their individual contracts.
After reviewing the contract terms with defendants and their
parents, the law enforcement officers act as informal mentors,
periodically checking with the defendants to ensure they
are working to complete their sentences.
Since its inception
in May 1994, the Bay County Teen Court program has been
embraced by local law enforcement administrators and line
officers alike. Administrators value the opportunity it
provides for the area's young people to see law enforcement
in a positive, rather than negative, light. By having the
option of referring first-time offenders to Teen Court instead
of juvenile court, officers can give youthful wrongdoers
a chance to make amends-and help guide them through the
process-without saddling them with a juvenile record.
By interacting
with the defend-ants as they fulfill their community service
hours, officers have a chance to serve as positive role
models for at-risk young people. Often, this constructive
interaction proves enough to convince troubled youths that
law enforcement officers are not out to get them. More important,
some of the defendants adopt more positive outlooks as a
direct result of interaction with the officers. For law
enforcement officers conditioned to seeing negative outcomes,
few results could be as rewarding as seeing young people
turn their lives around and turn their backs on lives of
crime.
Direct Referral
The Bay County
Teen Court is one of the few in the State of Florida that
receives cases through direct referrals from law enforcement
officers. The direct referral system calls for officers
in the field to judge the suitability of a particular juvenile
for the program. If the officer believes that a young person
is a first offender, then the officer can refer the case
directly to the Teen Court office, bypassing the juvenile
justice system entirely. Once the child has been transported
to the jail and fingerprinted--if the offense warrants this
process--the youth's case file, including the affidavit,
witness statements, etc., is placed in a box at the police
department. The Teen Court office checks this box daily.
The director
also checks with the Department of Juvenile Justice to ensure
that the juvenile is, in fact, a first-time offender. Youths
who qualify for the program are sent an appointment letter
putting the Teen Court process into motion.
Often, defendants
appear in court within 3 weeks of their arrest. The brief
waiting period is particularly helpful when sentencing very
young offenders who have a tendency to forget why they are
being punished.
Referral of youths
to Teen Court reduces the workload of the overburdened Department
of Juvenile Justice. The Bay County program reduces the
juvenile court caseload by more than 250 cases a year. Diverting
first-time offenders charged with misdemeanors to Teen Court
enables the depart-ment's case managers to work more closely
with multiple offenders and those youths charged with felonies.
The direct referral
system also helps reduce duplication of services because
only one intake interview is conducted. If the Teen Court
director discovers that a juvenile referred to the program
is not a first-time offender, the youth's original affidavit
simply is forwarded to the Department of Juvenile Justice
and the standard juvenile court process is put into motion.
Conclusion
The rising level
of criminal activity committed by young people is a complex
problem, fueled by many contributing factors. Institutions
working alone-whether schools, law enforcement, or the courts-will
have limited impact in addressing the problem. Yet, together,
they can make a difference. Communities that develop an
integrated approach to resolving the issues that surround
youth crime enhance their chances of reducing juvenile crime
levels.
Teen Court combines
elements of the criminal justice system with volunteers
to address a pressing community problem. The program succeeds
for two reasons. It uses peer pressure to reinforce the
negative consequences of crime, and it creates a structured
environment for law enforcement, the courts, and the community
to intervene before first-time offenders become hardened
criminals. While Teen Court cannot replace juvenile court,
communities searching for solutions to the vexing problem
of youth crime might find that it offers a valuable complement
to the existing approach to juvenile justice.
Endnotes
1 Tracy Godwin,
with David Steinhart and Betsy Fulton, "Peer Justice
and Youth Empowerment: An Implementation Guide for Teen
Court Programs," in partnership with the U.S. Department
of Justice, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the
American Probation and Parole Association, (Washington,
DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996).
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid. However,
it should be noted that juveniles referred to juvenile courts
have committed more serious crimes than defendants referred
to Teen Court.
Sidebar 1
Referral Criteria
In Bay County,
juveniles can be referred to Teen Court by a law enforcement
officer, school resource officer, school administrator,
juvenile judge, state attorney, or representative of the
Department of Juvenile Justice. To qualify for the Teen
Court program, a juvenile must:
-- Be between
the ages of 11 and 16
-- Be charged with a misdemeanor
-- Not have a prior record
-- Pay restitution for any stolen property not returned
to victims
-- Admit guilt and, with the consent of a parent or guardian,
waive the right to a speedy trial.
Sidebar 2
Sanctions
All defendants
in Bay County, Florida, Teen Court must:
-- Participate
in 1 to 4 Teen Court juries
-- Perform 10 to 50 hours of community service
-- Pay financial restitution to victims
In addition, sanctions could include one or any combination
of the following:
-- Apology letters
to victims and parents
-- Essays, up to 5 pages long, relating to the crime
-- A curfew of 5 p.m. for up to 30 days
-- House arrest for up to 30 days
-- A tour of the Bay County Jail
-- A tour of the Bay County Sheriff's Office Boot Camp
-- Drug and alcohol counseling
-- Driver's license suspension
