Former Stoneleigh Fellow Gregg Volz served as a member of the Joint State Government Commission to review the uses and effects of youth courts and to issue a report for the PA General Assembly. The report was released in July 2019.
The Joint State Government Commission has released Youth Courts: Report of the Advisory Committee on the Use and Effect of Youth Courts in Pennsylvania’s Education and Juvenile Justice Systems, as directed by Senate Resolution 32 of 2017. Youth courts use peer judgement and accountability to divert youth who have committed anti-social, delinquent, and minor criminal offenses from traditional juvenile justice and school discipline protocols toward what is broadly known as restorative justice. This report describes how and where the different forms of youth courts are currently used, provides an analysis of their costs and benefits, and makes recommendations for how youth court programs could be utilized throughout the commonwealth.
