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Published Online: 20 August 2004

`Last Place These Kids Need to Be'

Publication: Psychiatric News
Volume 39, Number 16
https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.39.16.0390039
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Although statistics paint a dismal picture of the number of incarcerated youth awaiting mental health services in the United States, it is perhaps the words of administrators running juvenile detention facilities that best portray the scope of the problem.
The following are quotes from administrators that appear in the report“ Incarceration of Youth Who Are Waiting for Community Mental Health Services in the United States.”
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“We are receiving juveniles that five years ago would have been in an inpatient mental health facility....We have had a number of juveniles who should no more be in our institution than I should be able to fly”—an administrator in Washington state
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“The availability of mental health services in this area is slim to none. We have had to detain and monitor closely juveniles who are acutely depressed/suicidal due to lack of bed/space at the state mental health facilities. We appear to be warehousing youths with mental illness due to lack of mental health services.”—an administrator in Louisiana
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“We are overwhelmed by the sheer number of mentally challenged youth that we must deal with. We have become the depository of last resort for all acting out, behaviorally challenged, developmentally disabled [youth] when others don't know how to handle [them].”—an administrator in California
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“I find the last place some of these kids need to be is in detention. The kids with conduct disorder end up being locked in their cell for their actions. Those with depression are locked up alone to contemplate suicide.”—an administrator from Tennessee.

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Psychiatric News
Volume 39 • Number 16 • August 20, 2004
Pages: 39

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Published online: 20 August 2004
Published in print: August 20, 2004

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