Structural and Policy-Based Issues
The prevalence of mental health issues for the youth is far greater within the juvenile justice system as opposed to the general population. It is safe to assume that 20% of the youth in the juvenile justice system have a serious mental health issue. Many of the youth with mental health issues also have co-occurring substance abuse problems (Cocozza and Skowyra, 2000). Presently, these facilities are not equipped to deal with the needs of the mentally ill. Juvenile detention facilities are the home to horrors such as violence and sexual victimization. This leads to the worsening of mental health issues as well as potentially producing symptoms within individuals without prior mental health issues (Pinheiro, 2006). Reforms are necessary within facilities in order to cater to the needs of the mentally ill. Secondly, alternatives to incarceration are needed so that kids can avoid the violence and sexual abuse that comes with incarceration. Finally, there needs to be a shift from criminalization and punishment to rehabilitation.
In a study of the prevalence of sexual victimization among adjudicated youth within facilities an estimated 9.5% of juveniles reported being the victim of one or more acts of sexual abuse. This is not just a problem of kids abusing other kids. The large majority of sexual abuse was reported to have involved facility staff (7.7%). Even worse, 85.9% of youth victimized by staff reported more that one incident, with 20.4% reporting eleven or more incidents (Beck, Cantor, Hartge, & Smith, 2013). This is a major issue due to the trauma sexual victimization can have on these children. This trauma can very well lead to mental health issues as well as intensify existing issues.
Laws make it easy to try children as adults and in the year 2000 about 55,000 children were tried as adults. The major concern here is that children tried as adults, if convicted, are then usually detained in adult prisons. This leaves these children very susceptible to violence from the adults incarcerated with them. It has also been found that children in adult facilities are eight times more likely to commit suicide than those in juvenile facilities (Pinheiro, 2006). These violent conditions within detention center only help to promote mental health issues and by no means promote rehabilitation.