There are more than 5 million Opportunity Youth (ages 16-24 disconnected from work and school) in the United States. Texas is home to more than 500,000 Opportunity Youth (OYs), meaning that 1 in 10 of the country’s OYs lives in Texas. And the three top cities with the most OYs are Dallas (127,000), Houston (119,400), and San Antonio (49,500). The economic impact of these disconnected young people is significant with OYs costing taxpayers billions of dollars annually and trillions of dollars over their lifetime in lost revenue.
Compared to their connected peers, OYs have hirer risks of chronic unemployment, poverty, mental health disorders, justice system involvement, poor health, and early mortality. Unsurprisingly, those with justice involvement have even higher rates of disengagement from education and work, with many citing criminal backgrounds as a barrier to full-time employment.
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.
