September 28, 2020 at 11:59 a.m.
Teen Court goes virtual: Restorative justice program reports high success rate
Teen Court goes virtual: Restorative justice program reports high success rate
By Stephanie Kuski-
Carrie Kubacki, positive youth development educator for the UW-Madison Division of Extension in Oneida County, said the Teen Court program is a restorative justice option that offers a different approach to sanctioning youth offenders.
It affords first-time misdemeanor offenders between the ages of 10 to 16 the chance to learn from their mistakes, make amends and learn new skills moving forward, she said.
Rather than facing sanctions handed down by an Oneida County circuit court judge, the youth offenders appear before a panel of their peers. The panel hears misdemeanor cases ranging from tobacco use and possession to disorderly conduct, alcohol and traffic citations, truancy, theft and shoplifting. The parent(s) of those offenders are required to be present at the hearing to sign off on the sanctions.
Panelists collaborate to assign the defendant sanctions, such as leading tutoring sessions or community service. Teens who complete the program successfully have the misdemeanor offense removed from their juvenile record, affording first-time offenders a clean slate.
"Teen Court looks at holding kids accountable, giving them options to learn to build new skills, and instead of punishment, it's focused on helping that youth to move forward into the future successfully," Kubacki said. "It's a kind of adversarial relationship where it focuses on the mistakes the youth had made."
The program has seen great success since it began in 2009, Kubacki said, noting that roughly 80 to 85 percent of youth successfully complete the program each year. Last year, their recidivism rate was only 14 percent compared to a national average which hovers at around 25 percent, she added.
"This last school year we had 35 youth go through the Teen Court program," Kubacki said, "and there were just a handful who were returned to the juvenile justice system because they didn't successfully complete their sanctions on time."
"One hundred percent of youth report that going through the program helped them to accept responsibility," she added. "Seventy-five percent of youth say they felt it helped them to improve their family relationships, increase their level of respect for others and increase their awareness of the juvenile justice system."
Due in large part to these success stories, Kubacki said Judge Michael Bloom and Judge Patrick O'Melia strongly encourage first-time offenders to take advantage of the program with the hope that these youth will not become repeat offenders.
The Teen Court program was spearheaded nearly a decade ago by Jim Winkler, who served as the 4H youth development director with the local UW-Extension office. Kubacki's role is to provide ongoing youth training and education for the program, in addition to coordinating sanction completion and monitoring courtroom procedures.
But Kubacki said she allows the panelists to do most of the deliberation process on their own and only steps in when necessary. She said the panelists come to their decisions collaboratively with respect to everyone's decision, and because each panelist brings with them a diverse perspective, each voice is valuable.
"The panelists are just wonderful at being able to use different aspects of that youth's life, and the family life, to be able to come up with sanctions that are specific to that youth," Kubacki commented.
The volunteer panelists assign sanctions that challenge the youth offenders to examine their wrongdoings in a way that facilitates positive progress. Kubacki said that when the panelists sign the code of conduct and oath of confidentiality, they are agreeing to be a leader among their peers both in and outside of the courtroom.
But prior to handing down court sanctions, the volunteer panelists - who range from ninth to 12th grade students at Rhinelander High School (RHS) and Lakeland Union High School (LUHS) - participate in an interview process and training program that teaches them about restorative justice and questioning techniques. Kubacki said panelists are not in the courtroom to judge guilt or innocence; rather, rather they are there to understand the situation and provide guidance on how to correct the offender's behavior.
"The panelists are there to ask questions to learn more about why these youth made the decision they did," Kubacki explained. "If it was a fight at school with another student, they will ask questions like, 'Tell us about your relationship with this person,' or 'Have you had problems before?' They will ask questions about other issues that may be going on in their life... and really trying to get a look at why this happened and understand that youth individually. And then, 'what does this youth need to do to move forward successfully and hopefully not do the same thing again?'"
"Anybody can apply to be a panelist," she added. "We do also encourage those who have successfully completed the Teen Court program to come back as a panelist if they're interested, because they have the true perspective of a youth who has gone through the process and can see the benefits of it."
John Krueger, a 2020 RHS graduate, was among a Teen Court panelist last term. However, his season was abbreviated due to the pandemic.
During his two years on the panel, Krueger said he's seen many positive impacts from the program first-hand since he went to school with many of the defendants he faced in the courtroom.
"The way it's most affected me is the change in mindset," Krueger explained. "Getting personal connections with so many of these kids who weren't bad, but just made unfortunate decisions, it changed my perspective on people as a whole."
He said the diversity of the panelist team allowed them to come up with fair, compassionate sanctions that challenged the offenders to right their wrong while giving back to the community.
But last year, Krueger said there were talks of cutting funding to the Teen Court program, so he joined forces with other panelists to petition that decision, and won.
"A group of my friends and I actually went and spoke in front of the county board to ensure that it wasn't something that got removed," he said. "I would be really sad if our community missed out on having this, because I know so many kids in other counties that don't have this program available to them. They don't get that second chance; it's one and done."
For that reason, the virtual format for this year's panel is even more important, considering the program has been on hold for much of the pandemic and is set to start up again this October.
Troy Rice, an LUHS freshman new to Teen Court, said he's looking forward to being a panel member.
"I decided to be involved in Teen Court because I really want to do something with social justice when I get older," Rice said. "I really like helping people and changing their lives."
The Teen Court panelists will resume hearings virtually come October via Zoom. Hearings will be held in the late afternoon to early evening so that youth don't have to miss any class time, whether virtual or in- person.
Once connected to the Zoom platform, Kubacki said she will greet participants and identify the spokesperson, who will give the opening statement and ask questions in a format similar to their regular hearings. Panelists can still ask questions and deliberate while the defendant and their families are in the Zoom "waiting room," and at the end of the hearing, all participants will be connected again so the panelists can read the sanctions and go through final questions and comments.
Kubacki said that if participants have trouble assessing the Zoom platform, she will make plans to reserve a room at Nicolet College for the family to meet there. She added she can be flexible in order to cater to everyone's resources and schedule.
"We are not going to deny anyone the program because of technology issues, that should not be a part of it," Kubacki said.
Although the improvised virtual format does not allow for in-person questioning and deliberation, it does have the potential to open up new doors.
"Now we have the opportunity to expand this program a little further," Kubacki explained. "I'm looking at hopefully Three Lakes High School getting involved with the process as well. It's such a small school that yes I can offer it to them, but they might have to drive all the way to Rhinelander in order to participate in the in-person hearings. This way, all of the panelists from all schools can be joined together instead of separated or having to drive long distances to be somewhere. I think that is a huge benefit as well - it's no longer just Lakeland Union students talking to Lakeland Union youth offenders. It's going to be a joint panel and I think that's exciting to open it up a little bit more."
The improvised format also challenges the team to think out of the box when it comes to the imposing COVID-friendly sanctions. Kubacki said they will not be imposing any community service or tutoring sanctions like they had in the past, and will instead be assigning sanctions such as "family responsibility time." Rather than asking youth to go out in the community to perform a service, they will be required to fulfill a certain number of hours of work at home, or may be assigned other sanctions like writing positive letters to essential workers faced with hardship during the pandemic.
"There's challenges, but there are also some great opportunities with the new format," Kubacki commented.
In addition, Kubacki said she's hoping to facilitate more prevention education programming via Oneida County Extension. For more information, call Kubacki at (715) 533-2007 or email [email protected].
Stephanie Kuski can be reached at [email protected].
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