Purpose

To create and maintain, within a graduated sanctions model, a comprehensive model of innovative community-based supervison that reinforces youth accountability and restorative justice and that promotes public safety.

Goals and Objectives

The goal of the Voice Recognition Program is to provide a cost-effective, non-residential, and community-based system of services for juvenile offenders, which establishes juvenile accountability in a strength-based model while supporting juvenile rehabilitation.

The Voice Recognition Program provides a variety of non-residential and community-based programs designed to:

• Reinforce juvenile accountability for behaviors in a graduated sanction model that provides consequences which are both reward and rehabilitative based, and which are directed at reducing recidivism
• Provide monitoring, supervision, and surveillance of juveniles in the community, on behalf of the referring agent, at varying levels dictated by client need
• Provide educational, social, recreational, and character development activities for juveniles in order to encourage development of positive personal assets and facilitate linkages between juveniles and supportive community organizations
• Provide communication between the referring agent and schools, vocational centers, employers, and other community-based service providers in order to monitor the juveniles’ performance and compliance
• Provide crisis intervention services to the juvenile and his/her family
• Provide referral information about services designed to address family needs and/or problems

Duration of Program

• Court Ordered: Until release by the Court or violation by program for non-compliance
• CSU Post-Dispositional: 30 days on initial admission; 30 day additional one time extension

Eligibility Criteria

All services within the Voice Recognition Program are accessible to juveniles between the ages of 8 through 17 years, who:

• Have been processed through the Hampton or Newport News Court Service Unit Intake Office
• Have been adjudicated and ordered to participate by either the Hampton or Newport News Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court
• Have been ordered to participate while under the jurisdiction 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 Service Unit as a graduated sanction for non-compliance with established supervision rules

Program Operations

The Voice Recognition Program operates with a staff of both full-time and part-time counselors experienced in working intensively with juveniles and their families.  Services are provided on an as-needed basis, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Specific requirements are mandated requiring the frequency of contacts within the home, which ensure a high level of supervision and monitoring.  The cornerstone of the program's success is establishing a professional, yet supportive, relationship with the juvenile and his/her family.

Benefits to Participants

The Voice Recognition Program provides several benefits to participants and their families. These benefits include:

• The ability to be supervised in the least restrictive manner, in lieu of detainment
• The ability to receive crisis intervention services around the clock, as well as support in accessing need-based services
• The ability to experience the security of a highly structured, yet nuturing, support system designed to enhance the protective factors for the youth and decrease the risk factors

Unique/Innovative Aspects

The  Voice Recognition Program provides service to one of the largest populations of juveniles within the state. The automation of the voice recognition program provides a unique approach in the delivery of monitoring services to the juveniles places in the program.  The program provides a sophisticated manner of community-based monitoring that allows the juvenile and family to remain intact and it also incorporates a system of accountability.  When the program rules are adhered to, counselors are afforded the opportunity to instill and promote a positive change in the lives of the juveniles in the program.

The program is also innovative in its continued enhancement of the services provided.  The program utilizes cutting-edge technology in order to better serve the community's need for safety and to maintain the highest level of client accountability.