Monday, August 10th, the New York Times featured an excellent article discussing the abundance of teens with mental illness that end up in the juvenile justice system. With a nationwide shortage of child psychiatrists and the increasingly scarce funding for community treatment options, many teens and kids have nowhere to seek treatment beyond youth prisons. In such prisons children and teens with mental illness do receive diagnoses and medications, but the overall environment can often be hostile, neglectful and even violent. This article forces a typically invisible issue to the forefront. Is this the best we can do for these kids? Is a youth prison even helpful in terms of psychiatric treatment and recovery? What happens to these young people when they leave the youth prison? Click here to read the full article.
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