Only Young Once Toolkit
When it comes to Georgia’s approach to its youth legal system, the past is prologue. Policies that emphasize youth incarceration over rehabilitation have political roots going back decades in the state. Rather than providing young people with needed services, this approach has led to vast racial disparities, systematic school pushout, well-documented harms meriting federal intervention, and significant fiscal waste. The Sothern Poverty Law Center’s latest report, Only Young Once: Dismantling Georgia’s Punitive Youth Incarceration System, the fifth and last report in our Only Young Once report series, explores the policies and practices of Georgia’s youth legal system, as well as the political culture that undergirds it.
The SPLC has compiled a series of social posts for sharing across social media featuring key statistics from the report and driving people to share it. We encourage you to share the below social media posts to spread awareness about the report and to help advance its policy proposals to bring about needed change for Georgia's children.
End Juvenile (Child) Life without Parole – JLWOP
The United States stands alone as the only nation that sentences people to life without parole for crimes committed before turning 18. (The Sentencing Project)
Raise the Age
Georgia is one of only three states that has not increased the age of juvenile jurisdiction to age 18.
EMI Georgia Network has been supporting Raise the Age since the first bill, HB 53, was filed in 2017 by Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver. We are now in 2025, and we are still supporting the passage of Raise the Age legislation that treats our children as children. "Raise the age" is about prevention, intervention and better outcomes, not about lack of accountability.
Studies about brain development support the idea of keeping youth who commit offense in juvenile court until at least age 17. Numerous health experts confirm that the brain’s frontal lobe —referred to as the “executive” part of the brain — is not fully developed until the mid-20s. This part of the brain regulates decision-making, planning, judgment and impulse control.
(Map courtesy of https://raisetheagewi.org/why-raise-the-age)
Support Access for Youth Voting Rights
The right to vote is one of the fundamental rights of being an American citizen. In Georgia, persons who are 17 years and 6 months of age can register to vote (GA. CODE ANN. Section 21-2-217(c)). In Georgia, persons who are 18 years of age can legally vote. Our youth, regardless of condition or station in life, are entitled to that right.
End Mass Incarceration Georgia Network is calling upon county election officials to ensure that the youth of Georgia, who are under the supervision of a Department of Juvenile Justice facility and who are of eligible age, be afforded all opportunities to:
(1) register to vote; and
(2) cast their ballots in all applicable elections held in the state of Georgia.