Juvenile Justice Courts

Of Current Interest
What are Juvenile Justice Courts?
Collaborative Justice Courts Projects
Strategies in Collaborative Justice for Juvenile Offenders

Of Current Interest

PBS Airs Collaborative Justice Documentary (06/01/2005)
In 2000, an experimental court opened its doors in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a neighborhood plagued by a cycle of unemployment, poverty and crime. The Red Hook Community Justice Center (RHCJC) is at the center of a legal revolution: the community justice movement, which emphasizes neighborhood-focused problem solving and rehabilitation over punishment and doing time. Instead of jail time, offenders are often sentenced to job training, drug counseling and community service. PBS aired this documentary in May of 2005. More information is available at www.pbs.org/independentlens/redhookjustice/index.html

Juvenile Domestic Violence Court Receives Honor (PDF)
The Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, is pleased to announce that its Juvenile Domestic and Family Violence Court has been chosen as one of the "Top 50" programs in the 2004 Innovations in American Government Awards competition. The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government administers the Innovations program. The objectives of the Innovations program competition are to communicate to the public information about government effectiveness, to give recognition to especially effective programs, and to improve government performance by identifying programs that may be worthy of replication. The 50 selected programs represent 7 percent of the 2004 applicant pool.

Juvenile Mental Health Court Project
Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation has established a Juvenile Mental Health Court Project, directed by Susan Solomon, a California attorney and member of the CABF Board of Directors. This project follows CABF's recent endorsement of such courts. The CABF Juvenile Mental Health Court Project seeks parents who are licensed attorneys willing, on a pro bono basis, to meet with juvenile court judges in their local counties to simply present this concept. The attorneys would be provided a packet of materials for this purpose. It also seeks stories from families of teens with bipolar disorder who have had past experiences, which could be used to promote the concept in the juvenile justice system.

Juvenile Courts Celebrate Centennial
Juvenile Courts' 100th anniversary celebration, held on December 4-6, 2003 in Los Angeles, culminated in the Celebrating California's Juvenile Court Centennial Conference co-sponsored by the Administrative Office of the Courts and Los Angeles Juvenile Court. Some 1,700 juvenile justice and child welfare professionals attended this comprehensive juvenile delinquency and dependency conference. The AOC's Collaborative Justice Courts Project organized six workshops for the conference covering the following topics:

• Problem-Solving/Collaborative Justice Courts: Do We Need Them? Can We Afford Them?
• Delinquency Drug Court
• The Fundamentals of Juvenile Mental Health Court
• An Introduction to Juvenile Domestic Violence Courts
• No Longer Boutiques: Dependency Drug Courts Going to Scale
• Youth/Peer Courts: Rural, Urban and National Perspectives

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What are Juvenile Justice Courts?
The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has worked in partnership with courts and communities on numerous collaborative justice programs for almost a decade. This long-standing partnership has enabled the AOC to support the development and enhancement of collaborative court programs, in the areas of drug and peer/youth courts, throughout the state. The success of these programs has made a significant impact through early interventions in criminal justice that support healthy youth and families, increase public safety, reduce the "revolving door" effect of repeat offenders in the criminal justice system, and stop the progression of youth to more serious offenses.

The Collaborative Justice Courts Project and the Center for Families, Children & the Courts at the AOC has developed a plan for supporting the efforts of local jurisdictions for the purpose of implementing or enhancing collaborative justice courts in the juvenile justice system. These courts may include peer/youth court, domestic violence/dating violence and youth violence court, youth mental health court, juvenile drug court, or programs that incorporate balanced and restorative justice principles.

The model for these specialized courts is based on accountability and participant-needs assessment. These concepts are utilized in court and probation case processing, decision making, program planning, and service delivery. The AOC offers support and specific technical assistance in these areas to assist standardization across the state while supporting the unique needs of each jurisdiction.

Adolescence is a critical period in any young person's life; however, some youths face greater struggles and find themselves in the criminal justice system. Through these specialized court programs youthful offenders are offered an opportunity to make significant life changes. The changes include the opportunity to address specific issues such as mental illness, substance abuse, and anger management. These programs promote accountability by combining judicial supervision with rehabilitation services in a 'team' approach. This holistic approach not only supports change for the youthful offender but also helps to ensure victim restoration and community reparation.

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Collaborative Justice Courts Projects

The AOC is currently working to provide statewide coordination of these courts into a system of collaborative justice courts for juvenile offenders, through educational and facilitative activities such as grant programs and training opportunities. These activities are coordinated through the Judicial Council's Collaborative Justice Courts Advisory Committee and the Family and Juvenile Law Advisory Committee. Currently there are 248 collaborative justice courts in California, of which more than 70, located in 30 counties, serve youthful offenders.

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Strategies in Collaborative Justice for Juvenile Offenders

Peer/Youth Court

Peer/Youth Court is an alternative approach to the traditional juvenile justice system. A youth charged with a misdemeanor or low-level felony offense opts to forgo the hearing and sentencing procedures of the juvenile court and agrees to participate in a sentencing forum with a jury of the youth's peers under the supervision of a judge. The basic principles of youth courts are that they be youth focused, youth driven, and designed to empower youths by helping them to think, make choices, and develop connections with adults.

These courts often engage youth by having them take on the roles of prosecuting and defense attorney, bailiff, and court clerk. These "actors" all receive a civics course as part of their school curriculum prior to the actual hearing, and are mentored by local attorneys. For many of these youth, the experience broadens their career considerations and gives them a more comprehensive view of the criminal justice system.

Domestic Violence/Dating Violence or Youth Violence Court

These courts focus on youth who have committed an act of violence. Domestic violence/dating violence courts address violent incidents against a person who would be considered an intimate, such as a spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, or someone in a dating relationship, or acts of abuse directed at a close family member, such as a parent or sibling. The approach focuses on two areas: ensuring accountability by addressing the behavior of the minor who is committing the abusive act(s), and ensuring safety and providing support for the victim.

Mental Health Court

These courts focus on treatment to restore health and reduce criminal activity. They focus on providing youthful offenders who have an established mental health diagnosis with better access to treatment, consistent supervision, support to develop healthy relationships with their families, a more successful academic experience, and reduced criminal involvement. As with juvenile drug court, these courts focus on accountability and realistic goals and expectations of each youth. Assessment and close monitoring are critical components of this type of court.

Juvenile Drug Court

Juvenile drug court programs provide the intensive judicial intervention and intensive community supervision of juveniles involved in substance abuse that is not generally available through the traditional juvenile court process. With the growing prevalence of substance abuse among juveniles and the complexity of their treatment, which must involve both the child and his or her living environment, the traditional juvenile justice process may be unable to deal effectively with the whole problem that leads juveniles to commit drug offenses.

The juvenile drug court approach is designed to fill this gap by providing immediate and continuous court intervention in the lives of children using drugs or involved in family situations in which substance addiction is present. This intervention includes requiring the child, and often the family, to begin treatment, submit to frequent drug testing, appear at regular and frequent court status hearings, and comply with other court conditions geared to accountability, rehabilitation, long-term sobriety, and cessation of criminal activity. The enhancements introduced by the juvenile drug court process include:/p>

• Immediate intervention by the court and continuous supervision by the judge of the progress of the juvenile and his or her family;
• The development of a program of treatment and rehabilitation services that addresses family problems, not simply the child's;
• Immediate response by the court to the child's needs and situation, as well as to noncompliance by either the child or the family with the court's program conditions; and
• Judicial leadership that brings together schools, treatment resources, and other community agencies to achieve the drug court's goals.¹

Balanced and Restorative Justice Principles

Programs using balanced and restorative justice principles provide a framework for practicing juvenile justice in a way that repairs the harm caused by the offense, establishes a healthy balance, and promotes healing among community members, including victims and youthful offenders. This approach strengthens the community's capacity to solve problems around issues such as crime and quality of life and helps to prevent additional crime by establishing true partnerships between the criminal justice system and communities. Benchmarks for successful program participation include payment of victim restitution and victim satisfaction.

For additional information on collaborative justice courts in the juvenile justice system, contact Nancy Taylor, Collaborative Justice Courts Project, at nancy.taylor@jud.ca.gov or LaRon Hogg, Center for Families, Children & the Courts (CFCC), at LaRon.Hogg@jud.ca.gov.

Also visit the CFCC Web site.

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¹Excerpted from American University, Juvenile Drug Courts: Preliminary Report (May 1, 1997) p. 2