Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP)

The Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP) seeks to end the practice of charging youth as adults. As we work toward that ultimate goal, YSRP seeks to lessen the duration and impact of adult criminal sentences on children and their families, who are primarily low-income and Black and Brown. Through individual cases and systemic policy advocacy, we work to transform the experiences of children prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system, and to ensure that children who have contact with the adult justice system can return home and live full lives with dignity. We partner with court-involved youth, their families, and lawyers to develop holistic, humanizing narratives that mitigate the facts of each case in an effort to avoid adult incarceration and provide decision-makers with actionable alternatives. We make crucial connections to community resources, providing our youth and Juvenile Lifer client-partners with connections to supportive services including in the areas of education, healthcare, housing, and employment. Finally, through policy advocacy and in coalition with partner organizations, we work to raise awareness of the issues that face young people in the adult criminal legal system, and to reform the system.