PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Her energy lights the room. And not just any room on the day I met Elena Lorvil. The 18-year-old Jupiter High school graduate, now bound for college, talked with me from youth court in Palm Beach County.
She has worked in the role of prosecutor and defender for the past four years. Lorvil says of her job, “(It is) to make them realize they don’t want to be next door in the jailhouse.”
The “them” Lorvil refers to are young people, including school students, with no prior arrests who arrive at youth court for misdemeanor crimes only---marijuana possession, petty theft, perhaps a fight at school, etc.
Offenders are prosecuted, defended and judged by their peers under the guidance of an assistant state attorney.
Captain Michael Waites, a veteran law enforcement officer, now runs behavioral services for the Palm Beach County Schools’ police department.
Waites says of youth court: “They are given sanctions, punishment like a regular court proceeding. The advantage here is if they complete the sanctions they don’t get a conviction on their record.”
Learning from mistakes is the goal, and Elena Lorvil sounds very much like the prosecuting attorney she hopes to become one day, “My ultimate goal, “ she says, “is to help them see that what they did was wrong because they have to realize this is real life and what they do…their actions have consequences.”
