Second District Juvenile Court - FAQ's
2nd District Juvenile Court Frequently Asked Questions
My child has been referred to Juvenile Court. What now?
Statistics show that 1 out of every 3 juveniles in Utah are referred to juvenile court. These referrals will be for minor "status" offenses like Tobacco and Curfew violations, all the way to misdemeanor-type and felony-type offenses. About 90% of those referred to court never return.
If your child was given a citation for Tobacco or Curfew, the court will send you and your child a letter explaining your options. If he/she admits the charge, it will be handled by mail and he/she will pay a fine.
For all other matters, an Intake Probation Officer will contact you to set up an interview to discuss the matter. At the interview, the Intake Officer will explain the minor's rights, read the police report and find out if the minor wants to admit or deny the allegation. If the minor denies the matter, it will be scheduled for a hearing before a judge. You will have the opportunity to speak with a prosecutor before the hearing.
If the charge is admitted, the Intake Officer will ask questions about what happened, family life, school and other questions to get a good idea about what type of child and family he/she is dealing with. It is the Intake Officer's job to write a report for the judge recommending an appropriate consequence. For some first time offenders, the Intake Officer has the option of handling the case out of court by what is called a Nonjudicial handling.
What is the Citation Program?
The citation/diverson program is an educational program that deals with minors that receive law violations in Davis County for what would be considered a Class B misdemeanor or less if committed by an adult. The juvenile is issued a citation by the law enforcement with a time and date to appear at the Juvenile Court. The program is held every Tuesday at 8:30 or 10:00 and consists of Probation Staff presenting educational information to parents and juveniles about the most commonly referred offenses at the Juvenile Court. Once the presentation is finished a Probation Officer may meet with the juvenile and parent individually or in a group setting based upon the juveniles prior record. Most cases that are referred to the citation program are handled nonjudicially with a written agreement to complete either fines, community service, restitution, an educational class, or some other agreed upon consequence.
As part of the citation program during the months of November and December 1999, the intake unit developed a Christmas for Charity program in which juveniles were requested to purchase $25.00 worth of non-perishable foods or a toy as part of their non-judicial agreement. Over $1,500.00 in food and toys were collected and donated to the Division of Child and Family Services for children in need.
What is Probation?
Probation is one of the many dispositional alternatives that a Judge has available to use when juveniles appear before them for sentencing. Probation is a legal status that allows a juvenile who has been adjudicated delinquent to remain in their home under certain conditions set forth by the Court and the Probation Division. These conditions are outlined in the Probation Order.
The mission of probation supervision in the Second District Juvenile Court is to provide youth who are adjudicated delinquent, with the necessary supervision, support and skills to avoid further penetration into the juvenile justice system and to assist them in becoming productive citizens.
Probation supervision is based on a balanced approach. This balanced approach is three pronged and addresses community protection, offender accountability and competency development.
The concepts of the balanced approach are individually applied to each juvenile placed on probation. The probationer works their way through a series of levels until ultimately they are released from probation. These levels vary from intensive (house arrest supervision) where electronic monitoring may or may not be used, to self-managed, family supervision, where the Probation Department offers support to the probationer and their family on a limited basis as required by the family.
At each level, the Probation Officer "guides" the probationer to the accomplishment of goals established by the juvenile, parents, the Court and the Probation Department. Through each level, the Probation Officer's responsibility is, with the help of the juvenile and the family, to assess, plan, provide supervision and support, and document progress toward the established goals. These processes take place at each level and are documented in a Probation Correctional Plan.
Standard Probation Order
Sentencing Guidelines
What is the Diversion Program?
The Diversion Program is provided by the Division of Youth Corrections as an alternative to Detention. The program is for youth that have been placed in temporar custody of Youth Corrections for a period of 10-30 days. The following services are provided for youth placed on the program.
Tracking: The youth on the Diversion Program are seen anywhere from 1-3 times daily by Youth Corrections Trackers. The youth are seen in their homes, at school, and at their jobs if they are employed.
Work Crew/Antelope Island Crew: The Diversion Program provides opportunities for youth in the program to work off any community service hours or restitution hours. Youth on the Diversion Program can earn anywhere from 3 to 5 hours a day on the Work Crew / Antelope Island Crew.
Treatment Groups: The Davis Area Youth Center provides 5 treatment groups that focus on competency development. These groups are open to anyone in the community free of charge. The treatment groups are as follows:
| Monday: | Drug and Alcohol | 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. |
| Tuesday: | Conflict Resoluton | 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. |
| Wednesday: | Anger management | 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. |
| Thursday: | Victim Awareness | 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. |
| Friday: | Self-esteem/Social Issues | 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. |
How should I dress for court?
Inappropriate dress (I.E. shorts, tank tops, halters, bare feet, etc.) are not allowed and will result in your hearing being recalendared. Court costs may be imposed.
Drug Court - Davis County
Drug Court is a reward and sanction program designed to help youth with drug charges deal with their drug use. All youth in the program are between the ages of 12 and 17.5. The Drug Court does not deal with any youth who have distributed drugs, committed sexual offenses or aggravated assaults.
Drug Court is a year long process consisting of four phases. During phase one, each youth receives two to three drug tests per week and sees their judge weekly to review their progress. They also receive up to nine hours of intensive outpatient treatment per week. As they make progress and enter the second and further phases, the number of drug tests, hours of treatment and court appearances decrease.
Early Intervention
Early Intervention is a Weber County program. It involves working with adjudicated youth twelve years old and younger on a probation status. The juveniles placed on Early Intervention are almost exclusively felony level offenders that meet the juvenile Sentencing Guidelines for probation. The benefit to the court and community is the identifying, assisting and providing services to young offenders and their families in an attempt to divert them from further entry into the juvenile justice system. The adage "pay me now or pay me later" comes to mind with this population. Historically the offenders that enter the criminal justice system at an early age commit more crimes throughout their careers. One way to reduce serious and violent offending is through prevention and early intervention with youth who are on paths toward becoming serious offenders. How does one measure the benefit to a youth, family or society that directed a potential long term offender into a productive citizen?
Work Crew
Reprinted with permission of the Standard Examiner
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The 2nd District Juvenile Work Crew provides the means for youth in Davis , Weber and Morgan counties to work off hours ordered by the courts. It also allows those under 16 to work off restitution.
The work crew performs several community functions. They clean clean trash off the highways, remove graffiti from businesses in Ogden, feed the buffalo on Antelop island and operate their own garden in Layton to provide food for the homeless and needy.
In March, 2000, J & J Garden Center donated a greenhouse to the work crew. They will grow flowers and vegetables year round to bring to the elderly and needy.
The crew picks up youth at several locations throughout Davis and Weber counties.
All questions about the work crew should be referred to Natalie Kelker at 626-3826.
What is a Nonjudicial Closure?
NonJudicial means no judge is involved. The Intake Officer has the authority to handle some matters without going to court and without involving a judge if it is the youth's first or second offense. There are some charges that must go before a judge however.
If the youth has admitted the charge, and the Intake Officer believes it is appropriate to handle the matter nonjudicially, the youth may be asked to pay a fine, perform community service, pay restitution, or attend counseling. The youth and the minor's parents sign a contract that the youth agrees to follow through with this voluntary punishment. If the youth fails to complete the contract, the original charge may be filed and the youth goes before a judge.
Sex Offender Program
In 1996 Davis County Second District Juvenile Court launched a sexual offender specific pilot program. The program consisted of a few selected Intake officers, Field supervision probation officers and deputy probation officers who were extensively trained in the field of juvenile sexual offenders. Increased supervision. Involvement in sex specific therapy and educational material were and still are provided to the juveniles by the probation staff. The program was developed with the belief the offenders would receive optimum services with the recognition these offenders were not as all others on probation. The program continues to maintain the goal of addressing the offenders behavior, monitoring therapy, and reducing further community risk.
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Statistics
In FY99, the Utah juvenile courts received 55,094 referrals. These cases were handled by twenty-five juvenile judges and one court commissioner. Each judge/commissioner handled an average of 2,119 referrals. Since FY90, the caseload in Utah's juvenile courts has grown by 20%.
Source: "2000 UTAH STATE COURTS Report to the Community"
State wide statistics.Referral to the Juvenile Court
- 1 in 3.2 will be charged with one or more felony or misdemeanor-type offenses.
- 1 in 3.7 will be found to have committed one or more felony or misdemeanor-type offenses:
- 1 in 61 will be found to have committed one or more felony-type offenses against another person.
- 1 in 19 will be found to have committed one or more offenses against another person.
- 1 in 5.3 will be found to have committed one or more offenses against property.
- 1 in 6.6 will be found to have committed one or more offenses against the public order.
- A relatively small fraction of the youth found delinquent (37%) will be responsible for the majority of the offenses (75%). That is, about 10% of all of Utah's youth will account for 75% of all youth crime.
Custody and Supervision
- 1 in 16 will spend time in secure detention.
- 1 in 31 will be placed on probation with the Juvenile Court.
- 1 in 63 will be committed to the custody of the Division of Child and Family Services.
- 1 in 89 will be committed to Youth Corrections custody:
- 1 in 113 will be committed to community placement.
- 1 in 156 will be committed to observation and assessment.
- 1 in 381 will be committed to a secure facility.
- Overall, 1 in 21 will be placed in state custody or on probation supervision status.