Kids who’d qualify for mental health care are being held in juvenile detention, report finds : NPR

A recent congressional report has highlighted the issue of children with mental health conditions being detained in juvenile facilities instead of receiving appropriate treatment.

The report, titled “Prolonged Incarceration of Children Due to Mental Health Care Shortages,” was released by the staff of Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans. It revealed that many public juvenile detention centers have kept children in custody when they could have been placed in mental health care facilities.

Senator Ossoff expressed concern over the findings, stating, “Children with special needs are being held in detention for extended periods instead of receiving the necessary mental health care.”

According to the survey, 75 juvenile detention centers across 25 states admitted to holding young individuals for significant durations until space opened up in long-term psychiatric treatment centers.

A respondent from North Dakota noted, “There [is] no secure and safe public placement option for mentally ill youth who have violent outbursts in North Dakota, and so they come to corrections.”

Linda Teplin, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Medical School, emphasized the longstanding issue of high rates of psychiatric disorders among juveniles in detention facilities. She stressed the importance of addressing the factors that contribute to detention over treatment.

Senator Ossoff called for bipartisan efforts to address the crisis in juvenile mental health and incarceration, emphasizing the need for legislative action to address the longstanding problem.

The survey, conducted with input from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was sent to 355 juvenile detention centers, with 157 responding. Of those, 75 reported instances of children being held in custody due to mental health care shortages.