Defendants must be ages 13 - 17, and eligibility for teen court is assessed on an individual basis. Community service and teen jury duty are mandatory parts of sentencing. Classes, essays, apology letters or other appropriate conditions may be included in the sentence. The sentence is binding and the juvenile must complete the sentence to have their case closed. The YET program offers youth and their parents or guardians tours of Jefferson County Jail, Lookout Mountain School for Boys, Falcon Boot Camp and the Federal Correctional Institution.
Youths see a true picture of the realities and consequences of delinquent behavior.
In addition to the tour, in a roundtable discussion, inmates speak about their criminal offenses and the pressures they succumbed to in their home, neighborhoods and schools. Participants must be ages 10 - 18. The program involves carefully selected and trained prison inmates at Colorado correctional facilities located in Canon City. Participants must be ages 13 - 18. The program is staffed by counselors, probation officers and police agents.