Young Adult Community Conferencing (YACC) is a pilot program of District Court 15-1-04 for summary offenders between 18–24 years old.

Judge Knapp, seeking a meaningful alterative sentencing program for the many young adults charged with minor crimes in her district court, developed the YACC program together with Center for Resolutions.

She adapted restorative justice concepts, built into Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system, to this transitional population. The YACC program is designed to bring trained representatives of the community together with the offender to determine an appropriate alternative sentence. The goal is to allow the offender to "give back" to the offended community.

Young adults in the 18-24 year old age group represent a large percentage of the offenders responsible for the quality of life crimes that disrupt West Chester neighborhoods. Simultaneously, this age group is considered by the courts to be adults, but typically, they are not fully independent financially.

The YACC program grew from research with alternative sentencing options that have been offered in a small number of cases (less than 1% of those filed) in lieu of a portion of the financial penalty. It was found that the offender recidivism rate for those given an alternative sentencing package was one-half of those who paid traditional monetary sentences.

District Court Blues
If it appeared that a defendant might benefit, s/he may have been given the option to, among other things, write a personally meaningful essay about their experience.

District Court 15-1-04 created District Court Blues, a newsletter consisting of excerpts from these essays, documenting the experiences of some who have pled or been found guilty of violating specified Statutes or Ordinances. The newsletter is inspired by the posssibility that others might be inspired by their stories if shared with a larger audience.