Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP) aims to transform the experiences of children prosecuted in the adult criminal legal system through comprehensive court advocacy, policy reform efforts, and reentry support. Their vision is for the law to reflect the understanding that children, given the right resources and support, can undergo remarkable transformation.

Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP) was established in 2014 amid a period of legal ambiguity. The Supreme Court had declared mandatory life sentences without parole for children unconstitutional, yet many individuals were still serving these sentences without a clear path to resentencing. At the same time, children as young as ten were being prosecuted and incarcerated in the adult legal system.

A Comprehensive Approach
YSRP partners with court-involved youth, their families, and legal representatives to develop holistic, humanizing narratives that advocate for the transfer of cases to the juvenile system. They also facilitate connections to community resources to ensure ongoing support. The organization introduces new standards for legal representation, ensuring that judges consider the full stories of these young individuals before making decisions about their futures.

Key Components of YSRP’s Work:

• Mitigation: YSRP portrays children as more than mere entries on a criminal docket. By partnering with young people and their families early in the legal process, YSRP centers their voices and goals, producing humanizing narrative reports and assisting them through the court proceedings.
• Reentry Planning & Support: YSRP aims for the decertification of cases to juvenile court, minimizing time served. They support client-partners from the courtroom through their return to the community, connecting them with essential services in education, employment, and mental health to enhance their chances of successful reintegration.
• Policy Advocacy: YSRP engages in direct policy advocacy and collaborates with coalition partners to drive narrative change and legislative reform. By amplifying the voices of those with lived experience, YSRP ensures that policymakers in City Hall and Harrisburg hear directly from the youth impacted by these policies.

YSRP’s work is setting new standards for how young people are represented in the adult criminal legal system, advocating for a more just and humane approach. By ensuring that the full stories of these young individuals are heard, YSRP is making strides in transforming the legal landscape for court-involved youth in Pennsylvania