Teen Court to be taken over by the state

May 24, 2010

Valencia County’s Teen Court program, which provides alternative sentencing to teens, is being taken over by the State of New Mexico.

According to county officials, the change is the result of dissatisfaction with the direction of the local program, including that the program’s board wasn’t chaired by a district court judge.

Now the state will fully fund the program, though Valencia County will continue to pay for housing of juveniles in detention.

Because of the takeover, the program has been eliminated from the county’s new budget, which means the county will no longer fund the position of juvenile justice administrator.

Teen Court began hearing cases for primarily first-time offenders in September 2007.

Posted in: Services