Teen Court

What is Teen Court?

Teen Court of Santa Fe County was started in 1994 and has been serving teens and families in our community ever since. Alice Sealey, Teen Court Program Manager, has been running the program since 1996.

Teen Court is a first time offenders program with alternative sentencing and is run for teens by teens. The misdemeanor sentencing consists of Community Service, serving Jury Duties, mandatory DWI Prevention Class, well thought out Letters of Apology and other educational components such as Shoplifting Intervention Class (SIC), Substance Abuse Program (SAP), Middle School Parent Involvement Program (PIP), and our recently added components the Strategies for Teen Anger Management Program (S.T.A.M.P.), and the Graffiti Clean-Up Project. All substance cases will have an assessment, drug testing, possible counseling, and classes. We offer a Family Night presentation on how substances affect the growing brain as well as the Reality Program visit to the Youth Detention Center.

Teen Court offers services that keep teens out of Children’s Court and out of the Youth Detention Center and can save lives.

We also have Traffic Court for teens that get traffic violations. The traffic sentencing consists of Community Service, serving Jury Duties, mandatory DWI Prevention Class, and if necessary a Defensive Driving Course and Letter of Apology. These teens will be referred to us from Municipal and Magistrate Courts and will come to Teen Court. Teens are also referred to us by the Juvenile Probation and Parole Office and the Santa Fe Public Schools. Once their sentence is completed the charges will be dismissed from their records and will not affect their insurance costs.

There are also teens who volunteer their time to work at Teen Court and they are called Teen Attorneys.