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"Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the headline of this article in this morning's New York Times, which provides still more evidence that crime and criminal offenders often are a reflection of public health problems.  Here is a snippet: 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 Sentencing Law and Policy on August 10, 2009 (boomark / email).