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Teen Court

-- By YvetteFerrer - 16 Feb 2012

Memory

In high school I did something called Plano Teen Court. Basically, minors who had committed a misdemeanor were able to get it taken off their record if they participated in this program and did community service. By being in the program the defendants had to plead guilty, so all that was left was how many community service hours they would get and maybe writing letters of apology. The cases were tried by high school students, judged by high school students, and juried by high school students. I was an attorney. To become an attorney you first had to sit on a few jury panels. Listen to kid defendants’ stories about how they got in a fight at school, shoplifted, or if you were really lucky, got a DUI. Sitting on the jury we would listen to the attorney’s cross-examine the defendant and give their closing arguments. Then head back to the little jury room and discuss. Immediately I’d take charge of the room with some theory about how the defendant should get X amount of hours because this case of being out passed curfew was REALLY bad… or not that bad. Then I’d get some blank stares. Then someone would suggest giving the minimum or the maximum. The thing was that everyone else on the jury was doing their community service hours for misdemeanors they committed, not to become student attorneys.

Soon I became an attorney. And started to work my way up to totem pole for the “big” cases, drug paraphernalia and DUIs. Before a trial, if were the defense counsel, we’d meet with our “clients.” While each case had small variations, I always said the same thing. Say “yes, sir/mama,” “yes” not “yea”, look like your paying attention, say your sorry and what you’ve learned from the experience. Essentially, I was coaching on how to be a sympathetic defendant. But really who knows if we attorneys made any difference since the verdict always came back somewhat arbitrary. But we would track our “wins and losses” religiously. Secretly gloating when we started “winning” the big cases against the more experience attorneys. But we weren’t really winning or losing cases, all the defendants had already plead guilty. So what was left?

The Facts

So there really was no legal question in these cases, all the defendants had signed papers indicating their guilt. So what was it that we were improving at as attorneys? It was spinning facts to create stories that made driving passed legal curfew sound like a death penalty worthy offense. So how are the community service hours decided? “Anyone who has ever watched a jury trial knows that the rules often become a mere subsidiary details, part of the meaningless but dignified liturgy recited by the judge in the physical presence of the jury and to which the jury pays scant heed.” Really, it depends on how much our jurors sympathize with the defendant. If the juror was doing their time (of community service by being a juror) for the same crime, then there may be a lesser or harsher sentence. The facts were viewed through the lenses of the student jurors. There is no “accurate device for measuring which [defendants] are worthy of belief.” It is all magic – what is the juror’s life experience, how articulate is the teen lawyer, did the defendant say “yes” instead of “yeah” or wear a polo and not a t-shirt. We as the attorney’s liked to believe it was all us, but really half the jurors, at least, had their mind made up as the defendant walked to the stand.

So what’s really about?

Here’s what the website says: WHY SHOULD I GO TO TEEN COURT? 1. Teen Court holds the teen accountable for their offense. 2. Saves the teen or parent from paying the fine. 3. Keeps offense off the juvenile's record. 4. Gives the teen an opportunity for a positive learning experience. 5. Increase teen awareness of current laws.

(http://www.plano.gov/Departments/MunicipalCourt/juveniles/TeenCourt/Pages/default.aspx)

The Line-by-line

1) Accountability – Really? Surely Teen Court isn’t more effective at holding people accountable than the actual legal system. 2) Money – Now there’s a real motivator. A fine not to exceed $500 shall punish an individual adjudged guilty of a Class C misdemeanor. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 12.23 (West). Okay, what’s in this for the state? Teen court is not better at holding teens accountable than the state. And clearly, the state is losing money. 3) Keeps offense of the juvenile’s record – Sweet. But again not much in this for the state. 4) A positive learning experience – What does that even mean? In some ways it can be seen as a negative experience. Kid drives drunk and finds out that s/he can get away with it for no more than a slap on the wrist and community service. And now all are free and clear to commit again as a first offense. At best kids learn something about the system… 5) Increase teen awareness about current laws – how exactly? You’d be hard pressed to find a teen defendant who did not know possessing drug paraphernalia, fighting (assault), or driving drunk was against the law.

Again, what’s this really about?

It really wasn’t about the teen defendants; it was about us, the teen attorneys - the “elite.” This was about “upstanding” high school students (or perhaps just better at not getting caught) adding something impressive to our resumes. We were raking in the community service hours, not out of the true goodness of our hearts, but to get into the elite colleges. Teen Court was a two for one steal, community service and credentials. All so we could go to our elite colleges, get into the best law schools, to get the best jobs, to live in suburbia with our 2.5 kids. Teen court was a program established in a predominately white, upper middle class suburb of Dallas. Plano Teen Court was self-perpetuating system to facilitate the attorneys not rehabilitated the teens.

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