By David Titmus

A Washington County program is teaching teens on both sides of the law the ins and outs of the judicial system.

The Peer Jury Program, administered through the county’s Juvenile Court and Juvenile Probation Program, is made up of a panel of high school students from all over Washington County.

The teens — including those from Peters Township High School — hear the actual cases of first-time youth offenders and are obligated to render verdicts.

The Peer Jury Program started in 1997 with a trio of county schools - Canon-McMillan, Washington and Trinity. It has since grown to include all of Washington County’s 14 school districts. The schools are divided into five geographic groupings, with Peters Township working with McGuffey and Chartiers-Houston.

“All the offenders going through the program already have admitted their guilt,” says John Marcischak, coordinator of the county’s Balanced and Restorative Justice initiative.

“We don’t want to have the kids sit there and decide whether or not someone broke a car window.”

When a criminal report is filed in Washington County, it typically comes through the county’s juvenile intake office. There, Marcischak can read over the report and identify which cases would make potential candidates for the peer program.

The teens hear the actual cases of first-time youth offenders and render verdicts.

Young offenders eligible to have their cases heard by the peer jury must have no prior record and must not be facing a felony charge. The cases heard by the juries all are misdemeanors, which can include such things as criminal mischief cases, minor drug offenses and in-school fights.

Marcischak then contacts the youth and his or her parents and asks if they’d like to be part of the program. If all parties agree, the case goes before a peer jury and the students decide on a “contract,” a verdict of sorts that lists a suggested punishment. “The contract could include community service, restitution, counseling or random drug testing,” Marcischak says.

If the offender and his or her parents accept the contract, the youth usually has between 30 and 60 days to complete the tasks. Once the contract is satisfactorily completed, the youth will walk away with no blemish on their permanent record.

If the young offenders don’t live up to their ends of the bargain, however, they return to the justice system. The youth also has the right to turn down the contract and, instead, go back through the more traditional channels.

“We don’t see a lot of repeat offenders,” Marcischak says. “I’m betting that probably 85 percent of the students who go through this program don’t show up on any other criminal reports.”

Marcischak says both the county and the individual schools have sets of criteria — such as not having a record or being on probation — which students must meet before being selected to sit on the jury. County officials also would like the juries to be as diverse as possible, with students from different ethnic and social backgrounds.

Students sitting on the peer juries are trained to hear cases by Dave Scrip, the county’s assistant chief probation officer. Training includes discussion on how the court system works, the laws that are available to jurors, the types of questions to ask and how the court system is structured.

Marcischak says Peters Township High School had 30 applicants for the two open seats on its peer jury. Seats become open if students decide to remove themselves from the jury or, in Peters’ case, students are lost to graduation.

The peer juries meet eight times a year to hear cases and listened to about 70 cases county-wide in the last school year. Schools are called upon about once a month to hear cases and each high school has a sponsor who helps the students along throughout the year.

“So many students on the peer jury have gone on to study pre-law or criminal justice in college,” Marcischak says.

At the end of each school year, the program’s students get together with county Judge Katherine Emery for a recognition lunch. It’s is here that the new jury members are sworn in.
“Judge Emery is very supportive of the program,” Marcischak says.

“It really is a win-win for everybody. You couldn’t learn in a whole school year
what you learn in eight sessions on the peer jury.”