As we continue to monitor the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, I wanted to personally inform you of the actions we are taking at LSJA to maintain a safe and clean environment for our employees, Transformative Justice program participants, litigation clients, and the communities we serve.
On Friday, we made the difficult decision to cancel and/or postpone all client events/meetings as well as our public events and meetings until further notice. In the meantime, LSJA implemented its CommuniCARE procedures.
- Our Dallas and Austin offices have been closed at the advice of local officials and all employees in those offices are now working remotely.
- Until further notice business hours have been reduced to 9:30 am to 4:30 pm in our Georgetown offices. In addition to our regular cleanliness protocols, we will emphasize the sanitization of all high-traffic areas and utilize county facility cleaning services daily.
- We are working with our case management teams and attorneys to develop client check-in procedures to assure that all of our litigation and Transformative Justice clients have the resources that they need to maintain their health during this time.
- All of our team meetings will be conducted by video conferencing.
We have also established an emergency fund for out 17-24-year-old participants. As shelters are closing or reducing staffing, we anticipate having to secure temporary housing in hotels, provide cellphones so our participants can continue their mental health appointments through telemedicine, and secure multi-week prescription medications. If anyone wants to help, you can donate at https://www.lonestarjusticealliance.org/support.html and enter “CommuniCAREFund” into the comments section.
LSJA is dedicated to supporting our broad community of clients, participants, stakeholders, and partners during this time. If you have any questions, please reach out to me directly at ehenneke@lsja.org.
Thank you
Elizabeth
Project Partners
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Through our Youth Sentencing Project, we provide direct strategic litigation on behalf of youth who were tried in the adult criminal legal system and given extremely long prison sentences, particularly those sentenced to life without parole.
Youth should be held accountable for their wrongdoing in developmentally appropriate ways that consider their age, individual characteristics, and specific circumstances of their cases.
Our staff litigators take the lead on a limited number of cases every year, selecting those that have the potential to influence system-wide change. Last year, LSJA was involved in 13 cases challenging the transfer of youth (either as lead counsel or in a technical support role) and won 12 of these cases.
