Statewide Policy 

Second Look

Opportunity Youth

Mercy For Surviors

Reimagining Reform

To Enhance Youth Safety, 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

Policy Focus Areas

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 to reform the Texas youth justice system. Key components included information gathering, identification of potential reforms, consensus building, guided proposal development, and public and stakeholder input.

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.

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.

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.

Hear Their Stories

Learn about the policy changes that will impact systemic change

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LSJA Response to TJJD Feasibility Study

Click here to read our response to the feasibility study by Sunland Group regarding the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s plan to build three new secure state juvenile residential facilities.

The Second Look Book

Click here to read a collection of stories from people who were sentenced as kids to adult prisons in Texas.

88th Legislative Session Recap

Read our recap of the goings-on related to LSJA’s mission at the last legislative session.

Speak Up! Report

Click here to read our report on the health, needs, and experiences of youth and emerging adults in Texas.

LSJA Fast Facts

LSJA advocated for youth and emerging adults in the the 87th Texas Legislature

pieces of legislation supported by LSJA

testimonies provided influencing legislative priorities

coalitions supported to drive systemic change

In The News

Learn more about the impact of our policy advocacy. 

Project Partners