Juvenile Detention Home

Weekend Work Program

The Weekend Work Program is designed to provide participants with closely supervised work details that serve as a meaningful sanction in an effort to hold them accountable for their misbehavior. Work projects are those that enhance the physical appearance of public facilities. Projects may include trash and litter pickup at schools, parks and public buildings. Other examples of projects include graffiti removal and basic landscaping (i.e., mulching, weed pulling and planting small shrubs or flowers).

All participants and their parents must agree to the requirements of the program prior to acceptance. Juveniles must agree to participate, and parents must agree to provide transportation to and from the detention home on Saturdays and Sundays.

Purpose

The program serves three purposes: (1) To provide juvenile court judges with a dispositional option that appropriately addresses the needs of the juveniles before them; (2) To provide intake officers of the court service unit with an alternative to filing a petition for certain offenses; (3) To reduce the secure detention population by providing a less restrictive alternative to incarceration.

Target Population

Juveniles who were traditionally sentenced to weekends in secure detention for offenses such as violation of probation, vandalism and petit larceny are candidates for the program. Juvenile offenders may be placed in the program for these and similar charges if deemed appropriate by the interviewing intake officer.

Program Compliance

Juveniles who fail to comply with program requirements will be placed in secure detention for the remainder of their sentences as originally ordered by the judge. For those participants who are diverted at the time of intake, failure to complete the program will result in referral back to intake for the filing of a petition.

For more information, call Kevin Brunner, Weekend Work Program coordinator, at (804) 706-2159.