CONWAY -- Any parent of a teenager knows the strength, if not the value, of peer pressure.
Now, a judge in Conway is working to use that force to help change the lives of young offenders.
Circuit Judge Troy Braswell had planned to start a new teen court in Faulkner County since he took office last year. Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood had overseen a teen court when she was a circuit judge in Faulkner County, but it didn't continue when she left that office in 2013.
During his first year in office, Braswell spoke to high school students and talked with superintendents and counselors about restarting the program aimed primarily at seniors. Interested students complete application forms and, if chosen, get to serve in various courtroom positions, including as jurors, bailiffs, prosecutors and defense attorneys.
Last week, 47 teen-court members were sworn in during a ceremony in circuit court.
"We have representatives from home school, from Greenbrier, Vilonia, Conway High School, Conway Christian [High School] and Mayflower," Braswell said.
Starting Jan. 25, those teenagers will participate in their first real cases. Braswell will preside over all trials, and the defendant will have the benefit of "a real, licensed attorney" in addition to the student lawyer, Braswell said. Some adult volunteers also will help the prosecution at times.
The teen juries' decisions are binding, though Braswell will have the final say as judges do in traditional trials.
Braswell said he believes the program, sponsored by Centennial Bank, will help the young defendants, who usually will range from 10 to 16 years old, while also benefiting the student volunteers.
"I think it will reduce recidivism among juveniles and break the pipeline from juvenile court to adult court," he said.
Teen-court defendants will be chosen collaboratively by the prosecutor's office and the judge's intake officer. The young defendants who agree to participate and have the permission of their parents or guardians will be facing misdemeanor charges. If convicted, they will face less-severe sentences than they would in a traditional court.
"We will try to identify at-risk youth in our community" in choosing defendants, Braswell said.
Risk factors include a parent's incarceration in the past year, indigency and a previous delinquency charge, he said.
Typically, cases will result from nonviolent offenses, though not all violent crimes are automatically excluded, Braswell said. The teen court could hear a case involving a fight at school, for example.
"What a great opportunity for a 10- or 11-year-old not to have to come through a normal court," Braswell said.
Teen court will be treated as a "diversion program," where youths face sanctions such as probation and community service if they are convicted. They do not face fines or detention, though they might face small monitoring fees. If they successfully complete the program, their cases will be expunged.
"The great thing about [teen court] is, sometimes the judge is just another adult getting on to a kid," Braswell said. "This creates an opportunity for peers to answer to their peers. Sometimes when a young juvenile hears that other people his or her age disagree with their actions ... they may take those [comments] a little more seriously."
Braswell said he hopes teen court will divert young defendants "from the normal course of a juvenile delinquency case," in which a child gets in trouble again and again, first going through juvenile court, then adult court.
Teen court also gives student volunteers "a sense of community service," Braswell said.
"I think it teaches them about restorative justice: when we do things, how do we make them whole, how do we move on from bad decisions," he said.
Paula Juels Jones, vice president of the Arkansas Teen Court Association, a North Little Rock assistant city attorney and a board member for the National Association of Youth Courts, said teen courts are in most states. She said she knows of "six or seven" Arkansas programs, including Faulkner County's. North Little Rock has a school-based teen court, she said.
"The basic concept for teen court is positive peer pressure to change behavior," said Juels Jones, who is unopposed in her race for North Little Rock district judge.
Bryce Carter, 18, was the defense attorney in a mock trial the Faulkner County teen court had last week.
Carter, who attends Greenbrier High School, has previously tutored teens in the county's juvenile-court system.
"I see these kids who come in who don't really have people to look out for them," Carter said. "They have people who shoot down their ideas." But now "they [will] have us" to help them get "back into what they need to be doing and not what they're caught up in. I feel like I'm really helping the community."
Carter said that often, if a parent tells a teenager to do something, "you're not going to do it."
"It's like something that's just instilled in them [teens] that they don't want to budge. But if you have someone else who's around their age" and that person shows the teen that he "can be a great person," then that helps, Carter said.
Casey Mae Goff, 16, of Vilonia was the prosecutor in that mock trial.
"I think us being kids, they'll also be able to see they can do better," she said. "I think it's easier for them to talk to us instead of adults."
Wood said young defendants sometimes view adult court officers as "just another parent telling them they messed up."
Wood recalled one case in which a girl was in trouble for shoplifting. The girl told her teenage defense attorney that she had shoplifted because she was "high" on drugs, Wood said. Authorities soon realized the girl had a drug problem, not a shoplifting problem.
"I don't think she'd have told her adult public defender that she was doing drugs," Wood said.
Braswell's goal is to choose a new group of teens next fall and to train them at the end of 2016 for the next semester.
State Desk on 01/10/2016