DECATUR - Cassandra Walker wants to be an attorney or judge someday and hopes serving as a juror on Macon County Teen Court will provide her experience.

The Warrensburg-Latham High School student and a dozen other potential jurors from county schools took four hours of training at Richland Community College on Friday. They learned what sorts of cases they might face and the kinds of restorative justice the court hands out to young offenders.

"We don't call it punishment," said Teen Court veteran Roni Dixon.

Instead, defendants perform community service, write letters, essays or even poems to their families and the victims of the crime and, Dixon said, try to repair the harm they've done.

To have a case transferred to Teen Court, the offender must be between 10 and 16, admit guilt and enter the process voluntarily. All defendants complete nine hours of Creating Lasting Family Connections, a program to improve communication skills, address substance abuse and establish goals. Beyond that, the jurors decide what's fair.

Often a teen juror will mentor the young offender. Dixon has mentored 11 defendants. Six have satisfactorily completed their sentence, three did not, and two are still working on them. She told the jurors in training that she calls them to see how they're doing, occasionally gives them rides to perform community service and in some cases has developed friendships.

"Some don't have support at home at all," she said.

And that's another factor to remember, said David Kidd, Teen Court administrator for the Macon County State's Attorney's Office. Jurors must learn the right questions to ask to find out why the defendants have committed their offenses and how to divert them from repeating their mistakes.

Macon County Teen Court is so successful - only 14 percent of defendants reoffend, a far lower number than the 70 percent in traditional courts - that Kidd, Amy Leman and Terry Mikeworth were invited to attend the Helping America's Youth Conference in Indianapolis last week. Helping America's Youth is a program led by first lady Laura Bush to create collaborations among community organizations to address the needs of young people in family, school and community.

Macon County Teen Court is one of few similar organizations that accept felony cases. With only one juvenile court judge in the county, Teen Court can help.

"(Violent crime) is a huge problem," Macon County State's Attorney Jack Ahola told the group. "I can't solve it by myself. The police can't solve it. You are the ones that can help solve it because you are the community. It's your peers that are doing all this stuff."

Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.