Budget Cuts Threaten Popular Teen Court: Municipal Judge is Trying to Save Program By Raising Funds

By Dave Sheeley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jan. 2–MENOMONEE FALLS — One of the first teen courts in Wisconsin needs donations to survive after a second major funding source has dried up. Michael Hurt, the village’s municipal judge, has launched a grass-roots effort to solicit donations for the popular court, which allows volunteer youths to prosecute their peers for first-time offenses such as smoking, stealing and skipping school. Hurt fears that the village’s teen court, the first of its kind in southeastern Wisconsin, could come to an end if he doesn’t raise sufficient funds after the Village Board struck about $17,000 for it from its 2007 budget. “If I let it drop, the teen crime is going to go up,” Hurt said. The village has footed the bill for the teen court in the past two years after the program took the first hit, losing its federal funding. Those funds ended when federal agencies stopped paying for teen courts in tough fiscal times, according to Nancy Anne Livingston, coordinator for the Wisconsin Teen Court Association. “Many courts in our state that were being run on block grants don’t have that funding anymore,” she said. The Eagle River-based organization helps start up youth courts and provides training for the 40-some teen courts in Wisconsin. Teen courts are alternative judicial bodies for which volunteer youths become prosecutors, defense attorneys and jurors of other youths on non-criminal infractions. Livingston says only 4% of first-time offenders in Wisconsin who comply with sanctions of teen courts offend again. “Youth court is based on peers instilling justice on their peers,” she said. The teens are empowered to have a voice and make legally binding decisions for their peers, Livingston said. Hurt said the popular program — 190 students are on a waiting list to volunteer in Menomonee Falls — gives sentences for public school children ages 12 to 16, which are doled out after half-hour weeknight court sessions. Sentences handed down involve writing apology letters, taking on community service projects, serving as future jurors for the teen court and, in some cases, paying to repair vandalism. A volunteer adult attorney is the court’s judge. At a November village budget hearing, Hurt pleaded with Menomonee Falls trustees to keep funding the teen court since it has helped decrease youth crimes in the village. Rates down 42% “We’ve cut down juvenile crime by 42 percent,” Hurt told the board. “This really disturbs me that it’s going to be eliminated.” Nonetheless, Menomonee Falls trustees cut teen court funding. “The funding essentially went to two individuals to pay them, and we just said, ‘Find someone to volunteer to do it,’ ” Trustee Jeff Steliga said. “Then the program doesn’t need to cease to exist.” Teen court wasn’t alone on the village’s chopping block, Steliga said. He cited the elimination of several village positions, including some in the Police, Engineering and Public Works departments. Soon after, Hurt sought private donations and secured a pledge by the Milton and Elsie Arnold Foundation to provide up to $10,000 for the court after he gets as many donations from other organizations as possible. Hurt is on the foundation’s board of directors. He plans to solicit donations from service clubs such as the Rotary Club of Menomonee Falls. “We’re out of money now, so I’ve got to start raising money” soon, he said. Courtroom doors stay open The court will remain in operation in 2007 as the two part-time coordinators, whose salaries make up the bulk of the court’s budget, will work for free. “I want to keep it running as long as I can,” said Harry Goetz, one of the coordinators. Goetz retired as principal of Valley View Elementary School in 1996 after serving in that position for 30 years. A few years later, he began working for the teen court. “I think it has a very good impact,” he said. Matt Lucht, 17, who attends Menomonee Falls High School, is a prosecutor for teen court and has participated in the program for two years. Like other students in the program, Lucht is considering a career in law, he said. “I like that it gives you the chance to go through the legal system and see how the court works, and actually work as a prosecutor,” he said. “If it would end, it would really crush me. “It’s something I enjoy and look forward to doing.” Hurt said students are serious about teen court. “I’ve got four kids in law school,” he said. “Every one of them said they are going to law school because they loved the program.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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