Compliance with court-ordered sanctions can be monitored by law enforcement agencies, probation departments, education and treatment program staff, and the parents of juveniles. This chapter discusses the importance of monitoring, problems the court faces in providing for monitoring, and what judges and prosecutors can do to improve monitoring, including involving parents.

Importance of Monitoring
Monitoring is essential to ensure that youthful offenders comply with sanctions and that sanctions meet their goals of protecting the public, holding offenders accountable to the victim and/or community, and providing the necessary education or treatment services for the offender. Without some form of monitoring, the goals of sanctions may not be achieved, offenders may not be punished, and sanctions may lose their power to deter future offending. While the method of monitoring depends on the sanction, judges and prosecutors play important roles in responding to cases of noncompliance. Police, for example, are responsible for monitoring license actions. When a case of noncompliance is detected and brought to the attention of the court, judges and prosecutors are responsible for enforcing sanction compliance and completion by imposing harsher sanctions.

Problems Involved in Monitoring and Options To Improve Monitoring
In the juvenile court system, compliance with sanctions usually is monitored by the probation department. Many traffic courts and other courts that handle youthful alcohol-related offenses have limited resources to monitor sanctions, however. In those jurisdictions where compliance with sanctions is not monitored, judges and prosecutors can use other methods to ensure compliance. The court can demand, for example, that offenders provide proof of sanction compliance at regular review hearings. In the juvenile court, judges can order parents to monitor sanction compliance and set consequences for parents' noncompliance. Judges and prosecutors also can use their influence to create or improve probation services in their jurisdiction.

Police and probation departments respond to the "messages" judges communicate regarding their attitude toward the importance of systematic monitoring and taking action for noncompliance. When judges discourage efforts to revoke probation or fail to take action against persons who drive after suspension, those responsible for monitoring become less vigilant or less inclined to call the violation to the judge's attention.

Involving Parents In Monitoring Compliance

Juvenile court judges and others, depending on State statutes, have the authority to involve parents in the disposition of a juvenile's case and to order parents to monitor the juvenile's compliance with specific sanctions, as noted in chapter 5. According to the National District Attorneys Association, courts also must have the ability to hold parents in contempt for noncompliance to ensure that parents follow through with court-ordered participation in a juvenile offender's sanction. Care must be taken to ensure that all actions taken against parents are in addition to appropriate sanctions for juveniles, and not in place of such sanctions.