By Tom Jarvis
When Nyah Velasquez and Trenton Liggins completed Young Adult Court (YAC) during a February 19 graduation ceremony at Hillsborough County Superior Court North in Manchester, they became the fourth and fifth graduates of a program launched less than three years ago as a pilot.
Judge N. William Delker, who presides over YAC, says both graduates are now pursuing paths that once may have seemed unlikely.
“Both of those participants are really on a career track that I don’t think anyone would have imagined when they entered the program,” Judge Delker says.
YAC began in 2023 as a pilot program for defendants aged 18 to 25 who have been charged with serious criminal offenses and are assessed as needing the level of structure and support the program provides. Judge Delker says the court is designed to serve both a public safety goal and a rehabilitative one.
“Our main mission is really twofold: to enhance public safety by intervening in a positive way in young adult defendants’ lives and to get them on track to develop skills so that they can be productive members of society,” he says. “I think it accomplishes both goals.”
The program is not intended for low-level offenses, Judge Delker says. Instead, he describes it as a program for medium- to high-risk individuals who have committed fairly serious offenses and would normally be facing a long period of incarceration.
Participants are assessed for risk and need and, if accepted, enter a court model that brings together the court, prosecution, defense, probation, police, and My Turn, a nonprofit organization that works with young people on education, employment, and related support.
Judge Delker says the collaborative model allows team members to bring different perspectives to each participant’s progress.
Young adults often approach risk differently, he says.
“As a young person, your tolerance for risk is extremely high because young people just feel invincible,” he says. “They don’t have that perspective that a more mature person has, and they also make decisions impulsively as opposed to using the more deliberative part of the brain.”
Jordan Strand, assistant managing attorney of litigation at the New Hampshire Public Defender and a member of the YAC team, says the program recognizes that turning 18 does not mean a person suddenly has the skills, stability, or support associated with adulthood.
“You don’t snap your fingers on someone’s 18th birthday, and they become an adult and have adult skills,” she says. “Some of us are luckier than others. We have those people that are in our lives that can teach us the skills that we need. But not everyone has that.”
Strand says many participants need help with basic life skills, from making appointments and contacting the DMV to understanding why the court has responded to certain conduct in a particular way.
“I think what’s so special about this population – kids aged 18 to 25 – is that they have extraordinary potential,” she says. “You just need to tap into it.”
For Liggins, the program included earning his driver’s license, working hourly jobs, completing an electrician program, and securing a placement with a master electrician.
During the graduation ceremony, Judge Delker praised Liggins for keeping his focus on long-term goals while working jobs at places such as Taco Bell, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and Wendy’s. He acknowledged to Liggins that the process had not always been smooth, particularly when early opportunities for apprentice placements did not work out.
“I hope what you’ve learned over the last two years is that the path to success isn’t always a straight line,” Judge Delker said. “The strength and commitment that allowed you to be here today, for graduation, is going to be with you throughout your life.”
Velasquez entered the program as a young single mother without a high school diploma or driver’s license. She says she came into YAC after facing charges that included stealing, repeatedly driving without a license, and participating in a riot.
She is now a licensed nursing assistant in Epsom and says she hopes to continue advancing in the field, possibly becoming a licensed practical nurse or registered nurse.
“When you first come into Young Adult Court, it feels like everybody’s against you,” Velasquez says. “It feels like everyone is just kind of pointing the finger. But once you go through it and you get halfway, you notice that everyone’s just there to put you in a better position, to make your life easier, and to show you what it is to be an adult and not think like a kid anymore.”
Velasquez says My Turn helped her obtain a job, car, housing, childcare, and other support. She specifically credited My Turn Executive Director Allison Joseph with helping her navigate major barriers, including appearing before the nursing board to explain her criminal record.
At the graduation ceremony, Joseph said she was proud not only of Velasquez’s progress in the classroom and workplace, but also of her growth as a mother.
“The thing that I’m most proud of in you is the way you are with Lanaya, the mother that you are,” Joseph said. “I knew immediately you were going to be a great caregiver, and that’s evident.”
Velasquez says receiving a sanction in the program – a weekend in jail after driving without a license – became a turning point.
“I needed to see what the inside of a jail looked like,” she says. “I needed to feel what it looked like being without my daughter. That was a big eye-opener.”
Judge Delker says YAC is utilizes both consequences and incentives.
“It is designed to provide quick sanctions when someone does not follow the instructions or rules, or does not meet their obligations,” he says, “but it is also designed to reward and incentivize the participants who are on the right track.”
That incentive structure is one reason a recent grant the program received from the New Hampshire Bar Foundation is important, Judge Delker says. Unlike some other treatment courts, YAC does not have independent funding.
The grant will allow the program to provide incentives such as gas cards, gym memberships, or positive community activities when participants meet goals.
Patrick Ives, a prosecutor with the Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office and a member of the YAC team, says the program grew partly from concerns about young adults on the edge of more serious criminal involvement.
“The hope was, if we can find some of those people, take them out of a prison-directed trajectory, and instead give them intensive supervision and a different path to walk, maybe we’re going to get a safer community,” he says.
Ives says the program is still young, and it is too early to measure its systemwide effect. But for the right participants, YAC fills a gap between incarceration and ordinary supervision.
“I couldn’t just incarcerate them into compliance,” Ives says. “I couldn’t just let them out into the community without enough supervision. I needed a more specialized tool to address some of the people who came across the criminal justice system, and [YAC] is a specialized tool that can help us get our job done.”
Strand says one sign that the program is working is when participants begin to speak honestly for themselves in court without being prompted by the judge, probation officer, or counsel.
“Those are the most rewarding exchanges with the court that we can possibly have – when they don’t need me to advocate for them anymore,” she says. “It’s very rewarding to see them all turn into their own self-advocates.”
During the February graduation ceremony, Strand addressed Velasquez and Liggins directly.
“You have proven to everyone in this room that second chances matter, that forgiveness matters, that rehabilitation matters, and that young people have limitless potential,” she said. “Successes in the criminal justice system cannot be measured by not guilty verdicts. They cannot be measured by the granting of bail. They have to be measured in moments like this.”