Troubled Teens Resources

A town in California has found an effective means to contribute towards teen crisis intervention by employing a program wherein the fate of fist time teen offenders is placed into the hands of their peers.

“Teen Court is a voluntary program where first-time juvenile offenders who have admitted to committing misdemeanor crimes or infractions are eligible to have a jury of their peers decide their sentences inaccordance with guidelines.

Eligible teens are referred through the probation department or by other means, such as school. Participants range in age from 10 to 18.

Jurors for Teen Court either volunteer, sometimes for school or community-service credit, or are sentenced to serve on the jury after committing crimes.”

The sentences meted out range from community service, to writing letters of apology, a group work project or some type of educational activity. If the teen re-offends, he is thrown back into the normal juvenile offender system.

“If a Teen Court respondent completes their sentence within the time allotted and does not re-offend, they earn a “clean slate” on their record. If they fail the Teen Court program, they are sent back to the referring agency or court for traditional processing.”

The program claims to have accomplished producing a low rate of recidivism, with only 10% of the teens committing additional infractions.

“For kids needing sanction or an intervention, Teen Court’s a very good program. So, we appreciate Teen Court,” he said.”
(source)

Check with your local officials to see if there is a teen court in place in your community.