66% to 75% of court-detained youth in the United States suffer from mental health and/or substance abuse conditions.
With the collapse of public mental health services for children and adolescents in the '90s, the juvenile justice system became the dumping ground for youth with mental disorders. Bernalillo County, New Mexico, took aggressive steps to stop this travesty by opening its own mental health clinic for the juvenile justice population.
Bernalillo County’s detention center’s outpatient mental health clinic is specifically designed to focus on and work with a juvenile justice population.
All JDAI sites should take whatever steps are required to ensure that youth retain Medicaid coverage while detained and can receive the mental health care they need upon release.