Youth Court is our premier program and an alternative to traditional prosecution. A referring agency (School, Police, or Court) may decide a young person is a candidate for Youth Court. That referral agency will complete a consent form with the young person and their parent/guardian. The consent form authorizes the release of the incident report to the Youth Court Staff. Once a complete referral packet (signed consent form, official report and any other supporting documentation) has been received, the Youth Court Staff will contact the family to set up an intake. The intake must take place prior to the hearing. At the intake appointment, families will receive a copy of their hearing notice and all the information they will need to be successful at Youth Court.
The Hearing is a sanction hearing that asks the young person to accept responsibility and testify on their own behalf to a jury of their peers and accept and complete the sanctions that the jury hands down to them in replacement of a criminal record or lengthy suspension/ expulsion. Parents/ guardians are required to be present at the intake and hearings and asked to help in their child's success by getting them to and from sanctions.
Insight Youth Services also provides a host of other programming throughout the cities of New Bedford and Fall River.
