Other Services
Juvenile probation officers employ many tools in order to reach the balance of community protection, youth accountability, and assisting to build competencies. Several programs that address accountability and allow the youth an opportunity to “pay back” to victims and the community are community service, the Remuneration Fund, and the Coupon Project.
Family involvement is an integral part of offender rehabilitation. Referrals to treatment providers are oftentimes part of the probation case plan. However, many families need the support of their extended family or friends to impact positive change. Involvement in the Juvenile Justice System creates collateral consequences beyond the traditional Court processes. With a juvenile record, youth may find themselves unable to get employment, enter college or the military, get security clearances, etc. With technology, this has increased those consequences for offenders. Youth must have the ability to move forward as productive citizens, to learn, to be employed, to have a career.
Expungement of the case is oftentimes the only avenue that is available to alleviate those consequences. Juvenile Probation, in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office, has created an expungement process that meets the criteria as set forth by the Juvenile Act as well as the Pennsylvania Rules of Juvenile Court Procedure.
Below is a list of the other services provided by the Franklin County Juvenile Probation department.
Community Service Program
The Franklin County Juvenile Probation department established a Community Service Program for juvenile offenders in 1992. Community service is an integral part of juvenile dispositions and most juveniles referred to this office are assigned community service as a condition of their probation supervision.
All community service projects are done at locations that benefit the community and/or nonprofit agencies. The program holds juveniles accountable for their negative behaviors, while providing them with competency development.
Remuneration Fund
Franklin County Juvenile Probation began offering the remuneration program in 2014. This program affords juveniles the opportunity to make financial restitution to their victim(s).
Juveniles participate in scheduled work groups and are compensated the federal minimum wage for each hour worked. Juveniles are referred to the program by their supervising officers and have the opportunity to earn up to $500 over a 12-month period. The earned monies are then paid to victims via a process through the Payment Division and the Franklin County Controller’s Office.
Work opportunities are available year round and throughout Franklin County. However, the bulk of the work is completed during the summer months at public grounds and local school districts. Tasks performed include, but are not limited to cleaning campsites and park grills, picking trash, painting, cleaning locker rooms and washing school buses. Work groups are supervised by probation officers at all times.
Program funding is primarily generated by Court-ordered costs paid by juvenile offenders to the Remuneration Fund.
Coupon Project
The Coupon Project is a community service project that youth clip and turn in up-to-date coupons to the probation office to be sent to a military base in Italy. Youth who clip coupons have a set of instructions on how to get credit for the amount of community service hours that they are assigned, and the hours are calculated based on the dollar amount of manufacturers’ coupons they collect.
The Overseas Coupon Program is a charitable service program that supports military families living on U.S. installations overseas. These families often face financial challenges when living overseas because of the cost of living outside the United States and the fact that they tend to have only one income. This program aims to help defray the costs of living overseas for these families. Franklin County Juvenile Probation youth provide to U.S. military families living on NAS Sigonella Sicily, Italy.
Expungements
The Franklin County Juvenile Probation Department completes automatic expungements on a monthly basis. When a juvenile’s case is expunged, the juvenile record is sealed, making it permanently unavailable to the public but where some information may be retained only by a juvenile justice agency for limited purposes.
The criterion for a case to be expunged depends on the type of supervision the juvenile was under. In all cases, expungement is only completed if the juvenile has only one disposition and has no further charges against them (including citations and charges after turning 18).
Cases are expunged after six months for juveniles who were under supervision for an informal adjustment or their case was warn, counseled and dismissed. In cases where the juvenile was under the supervision of a Consent Decree, the case is eligible for expungement after a six-month waiting period and has reached the age of 18.
For cases where there was an adjudication of delinquency, the juvenile has a five-year waiting period for most misdemeanor adjudications (and must be at least 18 years of age), and a 10-year waiting period for all cases that had a felony adjudication (and the juvenile must be 28 years of age). In special circumstances, there are cases with misdemeanor charges have a 10-year waiting period.