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Mentally ill offenders strain juveile system

The title of this post is the headline of an informative New York Times article published today by Solomon Moore on the impact of mentally ill offenders in the juvenile system, including quotes from a Texas Youth Commission psychiatrist. Here's an excerpt:As cash-starved states slash mental health programs in communities and schools, they are increasingly relying on the juvenile corrections system to handle a generation of young offenders with psychiatric disorders. About two-thirds of the nation?s juvenile inmates ? who numbered 92,854 in 2006, down from 107,000 in 1999 ? have at least one mental illness, according to surveys of youth prisons, and are more in need of therapy than punishment. ?We?re seeing more and more mentally ill kids who couldn?t find community programs that were intensive enough to treat them,? said Joseph Penn, a child psychiatrist at the Texas Youth Commission...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on August 10, 2009 (boomark / email).