Report finds children with mental health diagnoses often incarcerated instead of getting treatment

""Prolonged Incarceration of Children Due to Mental Health Care Shortages,""

""This should shock America's conscience," Ossoff says. "Children with special needs, locked up for extended time instead of getting the mental health care that they need.""

""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.""

""We've known for years that the prevalence of psychiatric disorder in juvenile facilities is extremely high far higher than in the general population. And we know that few kids get services, whether in detention or, particularly, when they go back to their communities," Teplin says."

A survey of public juvenile detention administrators found about half reported keeping children incarcerated when they could have been released to offsite mental health care. Seventy‑five juvenile detention centers in 25 states reported holding youths for days or months until space opened at long‑term psychiatric residential treatment facilities. Some states lack secure public placement options, causing corrections systems to house mentally ill youth with violent outbursts. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in juvenile facilities is far higher than in the general population, and few detained youth receive adequate services; detention can worsen psychiatric problems.

Read at www.npr.org