Street roots
July 20, 2012
Peer
pressure
Teens run court in an effort to
keep young offenders out of the
juvenile justice system
BY AM A NDA WALDROUPE
S T A F F W R IT E R
ff to one side of the Fairview City
Council’s chambers, 10 teenagers sit
in two rows of seats. Some slouch,
while others can’t sit still — they let their
legs bounce, look at their smart phones,
lean over to talk to one another, and one
even takes off a chain necklace and starts
playing string games.
A handful of other teens, some
accompanied by their parents, sit in seats
facing the city council’s dais, where Portland
attorney Shelley Keller sits in a judge’s
robe.
The jury rouses themselves when
another teen across the room calls them
and everyone else in the room to order.
“Hear ye, hear ye,” the teen says, who is
performing the role of court bailiff. He
stumbles through phrases, such as “the
honorable judge,” but once he is done, the
Youth Peer Court is in session.
The Youth Peer Court is a restorative
justice program operating in Gresham,
Fairview, Wood Village and Troutdale. The
program’s purpose is to keep juveniles who
commit low-level offenses for the first time
out of the criminal justice system.
The hearing held on June 28 was the final
court session of the year, until school starts
again in September.
The court relies almost entirely on teens
to run the program - attorneys volunteer
their time to act as judges and oversee
sentencing, maintain order and guide the
court’s weekly proceedings. But volunteer
teens, in good standing in school, work with
offending youth as their prosecuting and
defense attorneys. And the jury is literally a
jury of the offender’s peers - volunteers sit
on juries, as well as teens who are past
offenders.
The program has proven to be an
effective alternative to sending juvenile
offenders to jail, and more importantly,
helping the teens realize the effects of the
crimes they commit.
The growing awareness and use of Peer
O
Street Roots is a proud partner
with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps
Northwest and Americorps.
JESUIT
CORPS N O R TH W ES T
The most common offenses Peer Court
handles include possession of less than an
ounce of marijuana within 1,000 feet of a
school, consumption of alcohol, low-level
theft and burglary charges. Harvey-Trigoso
says the court has also dealt with the
occasional forgery case, and other low-level
assault charges that are downgraded to
harassment.
Adina Kiriac, 17, who has volunteered as
an attorney with Peer Court for two years,
has been surprised by how pervasive drug
and alcohol use is among her peers.
“You could have the best student in the
class doing marijuana, and you would never
know it,” she says. “It’s given me a new
perspective on my classmates. I would never
have guessed that they were doing that.
These things can happen to anyone.”
Many of the students coming through
Peer Court, Harvey-Trigoso says, are at-risk
youth close to getting kicked out of school,
and come from tenuous and impoverished
circumstances.
“We have a lot of kids who drop out of
school very early. They are very behind,”
Harvey-Trigoso says. “They are falling
through the cracks.”
Juveniles come to Peer Court after they
are given two choices by the police officer
in charge of their case, the juvenile
eer Court started three years ago in
department or the district attorney’s office:
response to increasing concerns about
drug and alcohol related problems in east try the case in court and thus enter the
criminal justice system, or enter Peer
Multnomah county’s various high schools-
Court.
including the presence of alcohol and
The county’s juvenile department and
marijuana on campus. Numerous
district attorney office reviews every case.
organizations, including the county’s
Most referrals either come from that office,
juvenile department, district attorney’s
or the police officers based at various
office, and the school districts and police
middle and high schools.
departments in the four cities where the
If the youth chooses to participate in
court operates, collaborated to develop the
program.
Court in east Multnomah County is also
part of a growing movement to reform and
soften juvenile justice in Oregon, and across
the country.
“The juvenile (justice system) has
realized that one of the best things they can
do, particularly for first-time offenders, is to
keep them out of the justice system as
much as possible,” says Mark McKetchnie,
the executive director of Youth Rights
Justice.
Last year, the state Legislature created
legislation to keep juvenile offenders out of
adult jails, and last month, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that it was unusual
and cruel punishment to give life without
the possibility of parole to juvenile
offenders. In the place of hard jail
sentences, restorative justice programs are
becoming more frequently used.
“The idea of restorative justice is
repairing relationships in the community ...
and building conscience,” says Kim Harvey-
Trigoso, Peer Court’s coordinator. “It’s a lot
more meaningful than restitution. We want
teens to feel like they are a part of their
community, and that their actions impact
themselves and others.”
Jackie Nelson
(standing) acts as
an attorney in the
Youth Peer Court,
with “judge”
Shelley Keller, a
crim inal attorney,
on the bench.
P H O TO BY A M A N D A
W ALDROUPE
P
See PEER PRESSURE, page 5
"Brandy# what did he tell yon
to cobv I bc © you to come? to
h a w him csm® baefc?"
Brandy could»*! control her
tears« "Inst th at he lowed m e?
and he was sorry# and he
would never let —"
"Bid you b ello w him this
time?** DP& Hershfeowlte
ashed,
"I b ello w him every time/*
Brandy said,
The gravity of abuse
Read all fo u r installments o f this engaging series by
Rosette Roy ale on our website, www.streetroots.org.