Teen court jurors judge ‘real person in a real trial’
By STEPHANIE N. LEHMAN
Just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t get better.
That’s a sentiment shared by numerous people involved in Nicasa’s Teen Court program in Lake County, an alternative to the branch court that first-time offending teenagers usually stand before after committing a misdemeanor.
The success stories are there. With relatively low recidivism rates reflected in the last few years – re-arrest rates average 24 percent for 2008 and 2009 – the program does help keep teens from getting into trouble a second time, said Candace Fujii, youth program coordinator for the Peer Justice Program at Nicasa – a Lake County substance abuse treatment and prevention agency.
Each year, several offending teens turn heads and join the jury – comprised of high school students – that sentenced them to their community service hours.
Some of those jurors have gone on to become attorneys and law enforcement officers.
Brian Smith, for example, graduated from law school in 2008 and now works for his father’s law firm, Smith and LaLuzerne Ltd. in Waukegan.
Smith was one of the first students involved as a juror in the Waukegan teen court program.
Though Smith had chosen a career path in law before joining teen court, he said the experience helped propel him toward his goal.
“I think it’s a good exposure for the kids on the jury,” Smith said. “It’s real – that’s the difference between that and a mock trial in school. This is a real person in a real trial, not just a made-up set of facts. I think it would be good for someone interested in the law to see how [teen court] works. It’s more hands on than if you showed up in a court room and tried to figure out what was going on.”
Then there’s Dean Ladin, a Warren Township High School graduate who not only participated in teen court as a juror in high school, but recently started his own version of teen court at Tufts University near Boston.
“[Dean] came out to my office one day a couple years ago, and I gave him everything he would need to start a teen court,” Fujii said.
She has stayed in contact with Ladin, and recently chatted with Ladin’s younger brother, Josh, who also was a member of teen court.
“His brother said, “Oh yeah, it’s up and running, he’s working with the state’s attorney and everything,’” Fujii said.
Still, no program is perfect.
What should change
Joe Polenzani, a practicing attorney in Waukegan, has presided as a judge in the Waukegan teen court for nearly a decade.
He said he believes in the program and has seen many success stories himself – including watching Brian Smith become an attorney – but the system could be improved.
While the teen court system has prosecutors, defenders and jurors, what it lacks is some kind of victim involvement, he said.
“There’s not any input from the community,” Polenzani said. “And that’s hard to do. There’s privacy issues when you’re talking about kids, and a lot of times people don’t want to get involved.”
Some offending teens are required to write letters of apology to those they have offended, Polenzani said. But the community should be further involved.
Fujii also agreed that community involvement was perhaps the biggest issue for teen court, but for different reasons.
Offending teenagers are sentenced to a certain number of community service hours and usually a track course – or skill-building course – as well.
But without sites for teens to complete their community service, the program can’t expand.
“In some communities, we just don’t have any community service sites,” Fujii said.
“It requires supervision and ... some of these sites, they don’t understand these are good kids who are coming through, who will probably never ever reoffend.”
Future of teen court
There used to be nine teen courts in Lake County before the court in Zion dropped out of the program, Fujii said. Now, a lack of funding has prevented any new courts from being created.
“We could always use more funding,” Fujii said. “We never have enough funds. We get money from Nicasa ... we try to get money from grants, United Way, donations at local level ... but we just never have enough money.”
Still, just because the program can’t grow, at least for the moment, doesn’t mean it can’t continue to help those involved, Fujii said.
Despite low funding, the program tries to give back to its participants, Fujii said. Three college scholarships are given away each spring to graduating seniors who have spent time on the jury. It’s a tribute to the students who put so much time and effort into helping a program that Fujii believes is well worth the effort.
The program also continues to fine-tune the ways it handles teen court cases, including new forms of sentencing.
While some teenagers have joined the teen jury on their own behalf, in at least one court, sitting on the jury has become an additional requirement to the community service hours teens must complete to leave the program, Fujii said. In some cases, the teens have stayed on the jury even after their three-month probationary period.
“In having the offender sit on the other side of the court while they’re going through this change – the community service and the three-hour track class – I think that’s a key component,” Fujii said. “ ... I think we have one of the best [programs] in the state.”
