Sanction Court

Sanction Court is our primary diversion program. The process provides an opportunity for a face-to-face contact with every first time youth offender and a parent, thereby decreasing recidivism1 and increasing accountability to first time offenders for their crimes. Sanction Court was also designed to deal with the status offenses -- such as curfew, truancy and running away -- that the Juvenile Department, or any helping agency, was generally unable to address.

If you have been assigned to complete an essay from your appearance in Sanction Court, you can find the outline for that essay in the Supporting Documents section below.

Parent and Youth Questionnaires can also be accessed from the Supporting Documents section. Please remember to complete and bring these with you to your Sanction Court appearance.

Upon successful completion of your Sanction Court contract conditions, you will be sent a Client Completion Survey by Sanction Court staff. This is the final step for successful completion of the program. If you prefer, you may visit Client Completion Survey to submit this form online.

Here are some facts about our Sanction Court program:

  • Initiated in Independence, Oregon in February, 1997.
  • Created by the Police Chief to address holding youth accountable for minimal, but irritating and recurring behaviors such as runaway, curfew and some misdemeanors. The Chief was in search of a "process" that would provide face-to-face contact with first-time offenders as opposed to the "parental action letters" that were generally sent from the Juvenile Department because of high caseloads. His idea was to have law enforcement more involved in tracking the progress of these youth, which would provide for earlier intervention, and at the same time, prevent the increase in workload to the Juvenile Department. The concept was taken to the Circuit Court Judges, and the program was then fine-tuned to meet their expectations.
  • Sanction Court was expanded to include Monmouth, Oregon in July of 1997. Other communities initiated Sanction Courts as follows: West County (Grand Ronde/Willamina area) in April of 1998; Dallas in February of 2000, and West Salem in July 2000.
  • The Sanction Court "board" is comprised of community volunteers (private and business), law enforcement representation from each jurisdiction within that city area, and a representative from the Juvenile Department. Other members might include representatives from Department of Human Services, the Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP), schools and/or any other organization that might have an interest to participate.
  • The responsibility of the Sanction Court Board is to meet and review police reports concerning youth that have been referred to the Juvenile Department for the first time. Generally, the types of crimes referred to Sanction Court are Misdemeanors (theft, criminal mischief, and minor assault), Violations (first-time Minor in Possession of Alcoholic Beverage (MIP) and Tobacco charges, skateboard violations, etc.) and Status Offenses (behaviors that are against the law because the person is under the age of 18 years: Curfew, Runaway, and Beyond Parental Control).
  • The Sanction Court Board will develop a contract of sanctions to be completed within a specific period of time, and then preside over a hearing with the youth and his/her parent(s) to determine the appropriateness of the sanctions. At the hearing, the youth and parent(s) must agree to complete the sanction contract. Successful participation and ultimate completion of the Sanction Court Contract results in a successful diversion, and the youth will not be referred to the Juvenile Department for further involvement in the system.
  • What does Sanction Court accomplish? How does it help youth? What we have seen since Sanction Court's inception in 1997 is an incredible increase in personal accountability of youth for their criminal behaviors. Earlier face-to-face intervention with these youth has assisted in deterring further criminal activity, thereby positively affect the rate of recidivism with these youth. Sanction Court interfaces with many of the community programs already in existence by attaching them to sanctions.

Goals of Sanction Court

  1. Prevention
    Prevent youth from any further involvement in the Juvenile Justice System
  1. Accountability
    Hold youth personally accountable for their actions.
    Show the youth that the Community wants to hold them accountable and is getting involved.
  1. Restorative Justice
    Make the victim feel whole again.

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1For the calendar year 2018, 205 youth went through Sanction Court in their respective community within this time period. Of these youth, only 16.6% (34) re-offended within a year of attending Sanction Court. Therefore, our success rate for youth having gone through the Sanction Court Program was 86%. (Total youth referred during this period was 367.)