Young Minds Locked Up: The Mental Health Crisis in Juvenile Detention

A recent congressional report sheds light on a disturbing trend: children with mental health issues are being held in juvenile detention centers instead of receiving appropriate care. While this is not a new issue, it is gaining more attention.

Key Findings

• Half of Juvenile Detention Facilities surveyed admitted to keeping kids locked up when they could have been sent to mental health treatment centers.
• Many young people spend days or even months in detention, waiting for a spot to open up in a psychiatric facility.

State-Specific Challenges

• A respondent from North Dakota highlighted the lack of safe and secure options for mentally ill youth, forcing them into correctional facilities ill-equipped to meet their needs.

Expert Insights

Linda Teplin, a professor of psychiatry, has studied this issue for decades. She notes:

• The number of kids with psychiatric disorders in juvenile facilities is much higher than in the general population.
• Very few of these kids receive the services they need, either in detention or after release.
• Detention centers can worsen mental health problems due to their harsh environments and lack of support.

Call to Action

Sen. Jon Ossoff, who co-commissioned the report, calls this a decades-old crisis. He advocates for bipartisan legislation to address both juvenile mental health and incarceration.

The Broader Question

While the report confirms what many have long suspected—that the mental health system is broken—the real question remains: What are we going to do about it?