Sentencing
We believe that a child is so much more than what is written on a criminal docket and work to minimize the harm children who encounter the adult criminal and carceral systems experience.
YSRP begins our partnership with young people and their families as soon as possible after contact with the adult legal system to center their voice and goals in their legal representation through humanizing narrative reports, and to help them navigate the court process.
YSRP has succeeded, in over 70% of our youth cases, in preventing a young person from going to adult prison.
Juvenile Life Without Parole
For Juvenile Lifers eligible for resentencing and Parole Board hearings, YSRP provides workshops inside of prisons on mitigation, reentry and self-advocacy.
January 25, 2016: the United States Supreme Court issues Montgomery v. Louisiana, guaranteeing resentencing for the 2,000+ men and women nationally who, as children, were sentenced to life in prison without parole (JLWOP), some of whom have been incarcerated for decades.
Philadelphia is, in essence, “ground zero” for JLWOP, because of the approximately 500 juvenile lifers in Pennsylvania, more than 300+ are from Philadelphia, constituting more than 10 percent of all cases in the United States—and the world.