Success Stories

Red Hook Community Justice Center (Red Hook Youth Court), Brooklyn

For many young people, minor involvement with the criminal justice system is often a precursor to increasingly serious criminal activity having life-long consequences. By intervening in the lives of young people at the point of their very first encounters with the justice system, the Red Hook Youth Court seeks to interrupt the cycle of crime and future involvement in the justice system. In Youth Court, local teenagers are trained to serve as judge, jurors, and advocates, hearing the actual cases of their peers involving low-level offenses such as truancy, vandalism, and assault. The Youth Court does not determine guilt or innocence.  Instead, respondents (the young coming before the Court) must first acknowledge personal responsibility before the hearing is convened. After deliberation at the hearing, the jurors craft a meaningful sanction, emphasizing community restitution and addressing the personal issues that the youth may have presented during questioning.

The Red Hook Youth Court serves young people in the Red Hook, Gowanus, and Sunset Park neighborhoods of Brooklyn and reflects four key principals: accountability, repairing disorder, services, and leadership development. With financial assistance from The Foundation and others, Red Hook Youth Court heard the cases of 149 youth respondents and trained 77 Youth Court members in 2008. Of the 149 respondents, compliance with Youth Court sanctions was 92% and the program exceeded the projected number of trained members by 37 young people.