Purpose

To offer an alternate sanction for juvenile traffic offenders by providing them an opportunity to complete community service hours in area hospitals.

Goals and Objectives

• To provide a cost-effective program for juvenile offenders that emphasizes juvenile accountability, while educating juveniles to the cause and effect of their actions
• To reinforce juvenile accountability
• To provide a viable service to the community, while creating a sense of community responsibility within the juvenile
• To provide the Court with an alternative sanction to address non-compliant behaviors

Duration of Program

Juveniles remain in the program until the successful completion of assigned work hours and/or Court date, or until unsuccessfully terminated.

Eligibility Criteria

This program is accessible to juvenile traffic offenders ages 14 through 18 who:

• Have been processed through the Hampton or Newport News Court Services Unit Intake Office
• Have been adjudicated and ordered to participate by either the Hampton or Newport News Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court
• Are ordered to participate while under the supervision of the respective Circuit Court pending the appeal process of a juvenile court conviction

• Are in post-dispositional status and referred by the assigned Court Services Unit as a graduated sanction for non-compliance with established supervision rules

Benefits to Participants

HERP creates an opportunity for juveniles to gain a sense of responsibility for their actions while providing a beneficial service to the community. In addition, HERP allows the Court and court officials an opportunity to address non-compliant behaviors in a less restrictive manner.

Program Operations

Participants are assigned to emergency rooms at the Sentara Careplex in Hampton, Riverside Regional Medical Center and Sentara Port Warwick in Newport News, and the Riverside Walter Reed Hospital in Gloucester. 

Participants in this program will need to have a recent tuberculin (PPD) test and will have to attend an orientation session with a parent/legal guardian prior to beginning service.

Unique/Innovative Aspects

HERP provides an opportunity for first-time traffic offenders, as well as other juvenile offenders engaged in risky behaviors, to provide community service to area emergency rooms.  In return, the participants are exposed to a cause and effect model of their non-compliant behavior, allowing them to recognize the effects of such behavior to others within the community.