Keeping Children Out Of Adult Prisons.
YSRP works to keep children out of adult jails and prisons, and to bring home people who were sentenced as children to life in prison without the possibility of parole (“Juvenile Lifers“).
Our Core Work
Our goal is to reduce the imposition, duration, and impact of adult criminal sentences on low-income children and their families.
During the court process in individual cases, YSRP presents prosecutors and judges with mitigation reports, or humanizing narratives of a person’s experience.
Sentencing
As close to a child’s arrest as possible, and prior to Juvenile Lifer resentencing hearings, YSRP creates individualized reentry plans that connect youth or Juvenile Lifers with critical supports and services in housing, employment, education and health and mental health care.
Reentry
YSRP aspires to end the practice of charging youth in adult courts. In the interim, YSRP’s policy advocacy chips away at the harmful impacts of adult incarceration on young people and their families.
Policy
YSRP creates tools and provides trainings for defense attorneys to raise the level of representation for youth charged in adult courts and Juvenile Lifers facing resentencing and Parole Board hearings.
Training
Our Model
YSRP’s holistic model of casework, advocacy and service provision uses techniques often employed in death penalty cases. It introduces new standards of legal representation that challenge the way that young people are traditionally represented in the adult criminal legal system. We provide space for their full stories to be shared with judges who decide whether they will end up in adult prison and carry lifelong convictions, and help them stay connected to their communities through incarceration and reconnect to the community upon their return.
