The United Youth Courts of Alaska is notable for encouraging youth leadership in the legal system and students’ own communities. Branches from across Alaska flew into Kodiak last Thursday for the 20th Annual United Youth Courts of Alaska Conference.
In Alaska, some minors may face their classmates when being sentenced for misdemeanors and crimes. Youth Court students train as attorneys, bailiffs, and judges in order to issue sentences to fellow students who have committed either status offenses, like possession of tobacco, or crimes like theft. Deborah Bitanga is a senior at Kodiak High School and the vice president of the Kodiak Teen Court Bar and the board.
She says community service is one possible sentence. “We also give them essays, and some creative ones is creating a powerpoint or doing a research about the negative affects of a marijuana or other drugs with the body,” says Bitanga. “Like, for stealing, we could research on how stealing could affect the economy of the town or something like that.”
Youth Court students learn about creative sentencing as part of their training at the Annual Youth Court Conference. They fly to a different location every year, and this time they chose Kodiak.
One of the vital skills Youth Court members take away from lectures is a fine tuned understanding of the offenders and their situations.
And Turner says that it’s very appropriate for young people to sentence their peers. “Youth listen to youth much better. They speak to each other better,” says Turner. “So a lot of times a youth offender will certainly talk to their attorneys and tell them things that they would never tell you or me.”
Turner says that students also learn to be leaders. “The more you empower a youth to do something, the more they achieve.”
Via alaskapublic.org
image credit Kayla Desroches KMXT
