News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters' Juvenile Empowerment Team, a diversion program for first-time youth offenders handled 65 cases in 1996 out of a total of 76 citations issued to juveniles. Through the program, 32 records were expunged and 27 youths completed the program. Five youths were dropped from the program and four committed another offense.
The program's 6 percent recidivism rate compares to a 20 percent recidivism rate for the Deschutes County Juvenile Department.
The bulk of juvenile cases in Sisters involve minors in possession of alcohol, drugs, or tobacco. There were 27 MIP cases in 1996. Theft cases were second in frequency at 22.
The J.E.T. program involves youth violators in commmunity service, educational classes and restitution agreements for infractions in an effort to divert the youths from criminal behavior rather than simply punishing them.
Sisters Teen Court, established in September 1996, has shown signs of similar success. Forty-two Sisters youths, both defendants and volunteers, have participated in the court in some officer capacity. The court has tried 15 cases and has seen 100 percent compliance with the sentences handed down.
Service on teen juries is a condition of sentence for defendants who face the court. The experience of sitting on both sides of the bench is, Teen Court coordinator Kirsten Werner believes an important element of the program's success.
Werner believes that defendants who become jurors gain a new perspective on the impact of destructive behavior on family, friends and the community at large.
"I think the main reason it works is that it's positive peer pressure working at its best," Werner said.
She said she has seen more "willful compliance" from offenders who are sentenced by their peers than she is accustomed to seeing from those who are sentenced by adults through the courts or through diversion programs.
The experience of teen court has, Werner said, been beneficial for a large number of participants, in some cases giving direction to youths who lacked it.
"It's like they have an affiliation," Werner said. "They belong to something."
Sisters teen Christy McCann finds considerable satisfaction in representing her fellow teens as the courts youth attorney.
Since all defendants who face the court have admitted guilt, McCann does not argue guilt or innocence. But she does step in to advocate for youths who are being called into account for their transgressions.
"I know for a fact that, being in front of your peers, it makes you nervous," McCann said. While the jury is confronting the defendant with what he or she has done wrong, "I'm there to say what he or she is doing good," she said.
Werner recruited McCann into the program after McCann performed community service for an infraction.
McCann said the experience has been educational and has given her a sense of responsibility.
"I am responsible for making a fair judgement on them (her clients)," she said.
Despite its apparent success, Teen Court faces an uncertain future in Sisters. It takes Werner about 30 hours per month to run the court and if her hours are reduced due to Measure 47-mandated budget cutbacks, she said Teen Court would have to be cut.
But Werner is committed to the program and hopes that fund-raising could pick up the slack if necessary (see story Page 19).
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)