State Youth Justice Campaigns
The Sentencing Project works with partners across several states, including Maryland, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, the District of Columbia, and at the federal level to keep youth out of the adult criminal legal system, limit the use of incarceration, expand the use of juvenile diversion and alternatives to incarceration, and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in both the juvenile and adult criminal legal systems.
Explore each of our issue campaigns below.
Raise the Age
Currently, only four states — Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, and Wisconsin — still consider every 17-year-old who is arrested to be an adult and prosecute them in the adult criminal legal system instead of the juvenile justice system.
The Sentencing Project is working as a member of the Wisconsin Raise the Age Coalition to raise the age of juvenile court jurisdiction in Wisconsin to 18.
Ending Automatic Charging of Youth as Adults
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most states carved out some offenses from the juvenile courts and automatically sent youth to adult courts based on the initial charge. While there have always been pathways to adult court, this carveout — automatically charging a young person as if they were an adult — sidesteps the juvenile courts from this process, ignoring factors such as childhood trauma or specific involvement in the offense, and only looks at the initial charge. The idea is rejected by many experts who note that adult courts are not built to handle young people. Today, every state has at least one juvenile transfer mechanism in which youth can be charged as if they are adults.
The Sentencing Project works in several states, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Tennessee, to limit the pathways that send more youth to the adult criminal legal system.
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Victory in Maryland: The Youth Charging Reform Act
Read the testimonyMaryland has taken a major step forward. Following over a decade of sustained advocacy by The Sentencing Project, the Maryland Youth Justice Coalition, and community partners, Maryland enacted the landmark Youth Charging Reform Act (YCRA). While this progress is meaningful, it is not the finish line. Even with this law in effect, Maryland remains among the top five states per capita automatically charging youth as adults.
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Baltimore Sun Op-Ed: Where Maryland made progress on criminal justice
Read the Op-EdLawmakers took meaningful steps to expand second chances in the youth justice system.
Expanding Diversion
Diversion is the decision to address a young person’s alleged misconduct outside of the formal justice system, either before an arrest is made or after referral to juvenile court. Jurisdictions across the country are advancing reforms to expand and improve diversion, demonstrating diversion’s potential to transform youth justice in ways that protect public safety and enhance youth success.
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The Pennsylvania Youth Justice Alliance (PAYJA)
Read our letter in support of expanding diversionIn coalition with PAYJA, the Sentencing Project is working to pass legislation in Pennsylvania that would standardize diversion for youth across the state and require diversion for misdemeanor and nonviolent felony offenses, unless it’s a third or subsequent offense within three or fewer years.
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Diversion Resources
Explore diversion resourcesGet the facts on the benefits of diverting youth from the juvenile justice system and tools to implement diversion programs in your state.
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Webinar: Diversion
Watch the webinarThe webinar highlights the importance of diversion as well as strategies for states and localities to expand diversion opportunities and reduce disparities at this critical stage of the juvenile court process.
