Policy

Second Look

Opportunity Youth

Mercy For Surviors

Reimagining Reform

To Prevent Youth Violence, Invest in Young People

LSJA’s legislative priorities are developed directly from the experiences of the clients we serve, as well as the juvenile and criminal system stakeholders with whom we work. We are committed to advancing legislation that increases public safety, reduces cost, and improves outcomes for youth and emerging adults statewide.

We advance policies that:

Support diversionary interventions that would keep youth more shallow in the system and provide individualized, graduated options to meet the needs of youth.
Require the development of a diversion plan to enhance community-based services and expand the procedural and administrative authority to divert youth from commitment and placement in secure facilities statewide.
Grow community-based resources to improve public safety through expanded funding to support prevention efforts and address the statewide children’s mental heath crisis.
Provide meaningful procedural review of cases that consider the unique circumstances of youth and emerging adults to ensure justice and public safety are achieved.

Reimaging Reform Report and Call to Action

Reimagining Reform Workgroup Findings and Recommendations

Hear Their Stories

Learn about the policy changes that will impact systemic change

Policy Focus Areas

Second Look: In Texas, youth can serve sometimes 40 years in prison before they are eligible for parole and then the parole process does not consider their youth at the time of the offense as a mitigating factor. Second Look legislation will shorten the time served before parole eligibility, allow the Parole Board to consider the cognitive changes that occur from childhood to adulthood that make them less likely to commit other crimes in the future, and provide an opportunity for youth to prove their rehabilitation.

Reimagining Reform: Over the summer of 2024, the Lone Star Justice Alliance convened the Reimagining Reform Workgroup, composed of cross-section stakeholders, advocates, legal practitioners, and justice-impacted youth with the goal of reforming the Texas youth justice system. Key components included information gathering, identification of potential reforms, consensus building, guided proposal development, and public and stakeholder input.

Over the last two decades, Texas has reduced its population of children confined in TJJD from 4,127 in 2005 to around 700 children in 2024.
In 2022, 56% of the TJJD population was incarcerated for a felony and 44% for probation violations.
In 2023, the legislature appropriated $83 million for salary increases and $200 million for the construction of new state secure facilities that will provide 200 additional beds.
TJJD still faces severe staff turnover, with 59 terminations in 2024.
Nearly 80% of youth entering TJJD need mental health treatment.
Transfers from TJJD to TDCJ facilities increased 107% from 2022 to 2023 (from 40 to 83).

Health Care for Youth: Texas should promote the mental and physical health of Texas youth by requiring Medicaid enrollment for eligible juveniles at both the county and state level, promoting the expansion of existing mental health workforce programs, and providing for incentives to recruit and retain mental health and substance use professionals.

Mercy for Survivors: Duress is an affirmative defense under the Texas Penal Code. Texas should evolve the Duress defense to include taking a survivors’ situation and history into account, thus making the benchmark comparison a person similarly situated to the defendant. This critical update will benefit survivors of all ages and help reduce the system’s criminalization of victims.

Clean Slate: Texas should update and expand eligibility for arrest and conviction record clearance if a person stays crime-free for a period of time. It’s a proven and successful model to implement commonsense policies that create transformational changes in people’s lives.