Sentenced to the Stage and Youth Arts Diversion are programs to which the Los Angeles Juvenile Court refers young offenders to participate in acting and dance workshops as a condition of probation. City Hearts, founded by former ballerina turned defense attorney Sherry Jason and her husband Bob, a 26-year veteran public defender, allows young offenders to take part in a 12-week workshop with up to 15 other youth for community service credit. The youth write an original performance piece, which they perform at the end of the session. The program operates both in juvenile detention facilities and in the City Hearts downtown Los Angeles studio. Youth who have learned to refer to themselves by their criminal classification ("I'm a 601," for incorrigibles and runaways; or "602," for juveniles who have committed crimes) are finding a new identity and focus through the arts. Interested participants may continue with City Hearts in ongoing 25-week programs in theater arts, circus skills, voice and movement classes. Additionally, City Hearts has an Early Years program, for at-risk children ages 3-11, and From Gangs to the Stage, which works solely with incarcerated youth in an intensive, 12- to 15-week program in which the youth write their own play.