Juvenile Justice and Mental Health

A new bipartisan congressional report finds that juvenile detention centers across the U.S. are routinely keeping children with serious mental health conditions locked up for days or even months solely because there is no space for them in long‑term psychiatric facilities. The report, titled “Prolonged Incarceration of Children Due to Mental Health Care Shortages” and released Thursday by staff for Sen. Jon Ossoff and Rep. Jen Kiggans, is based on a voluntary survey sent to 355 public juvenile detention facilities nationwide; 157 responded, and 75 facilities in 25 states reported holding youths in custody after they were otherwise ready for release while they waited for treatment placements. One North Dakota administrator wrote that there is “no secure and safe public placement option for mentally ill youth who have violent outbursts,” so they end up in corrections, and a leading researcher, Northwestern psychiatrist Linda Teplin, told NPR this pattern has been documented for decades. Ossoff called the findings something that “should shock America’s conscience” and said the only way to fix the crisis is for Republicans and Democrats to enact legislation that expands youth mental‑health capacity and keeps detention from becoming the default placement for kids in psychiatric crisis.