Agenda - 12-16-1997 - 10e - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Report on the Teen Court Pry 13 Juries Cumberland County. Juries are composed of a combination of volunteer jurors and jurors who are performing jury service as part of their constructive sentences. Teen Court staff assign the volunteer jurors randomly to juries as they arrive for the night's session. However, efforts are made to pre-assign the "offender" jurors by distributing them across the six juries, taking into account factors such as gender, race, and attitude toward jury service. In addition, if companion offenders are present, they are placed on different juries. The average jury size is six members, although juries have ranged from four to twelve members. Buncombe County: Juries are composed of a combination of volunteer jurors and jurors who are performing jury service as part of their constructive sentences. On a typical night, 16 to 20 jurors arrive, and are divided into two juries at that time. Certain prospective jurors may be excluded from serving in particular cases either at their request or at the request of the offender, as discussed above. Thus,juries generally consist of 4 to 8 students. Efforts are made to ensure that jury panels are composed of a variety of students, are racially balanced, and reflect different socioeconomic backgrounds. Durham County. Juries for the two Teen Court sessions held so far have been composed of volunteer jurors. Subsequent juries will include persons performing jury service as part of their constructive sentences. Teen Court staff assign the jurors to the scheduled hearings at random as they arrive for the night's session, except that jurors do not generally hear cases involving students from their own schools. The jury size has been limited to six members. Constructive Sentences Cumberland County. Constructive sentences include the following components: performance of jury service in future Teen Court sessions, performance of community service, and participation in educational seminars. For offenders under the age of 14, the jury service requirement takes the form of observing a session of Teen Court and participating in discussions about the cases, facilitated by an adult monitor. At an early stage in the Teen Court process, offenders indicate their interests in specific types of community service, and assignments are matched to the juvenile's interests to the extent possible. The educational seminars that are currently available are a two-hour seminar called "Making Good Decisions," a two-hour "Drug and Alcohol Awareness Education" seminar, an eleven-hour "Violence Reduction Workshop" (assignment to this workshop is limited to youths referred from district court who are 16 years old or older and are sentenced for violent offenses), and a twelve-hour seminar entitled "Managing Anger." All four seminars were developed by and are offered free of charge by educational consultants working with the Cumberland County Mental Health Center.