Educational and Mental Health Needs of Juvenile Justice Youth What’s Wrong When We Know What’s Right? Ralph B. Thomas December 17, 2007

Disproportionate Over- Representation of Youth with Special Educational and Mental Health Needs within the Juvenile Justice System

Juvenile Justice Youth with Special Educational Needs General School Age Population – Those with Disabilities Approximately 9% Juvenile Justice Youth Population – Those with Disabilities Approximately 32%

Juvenile Justice Youth with Mental Health Needs Approximately 10% of all youth suffer mental illness of a nature to cause some level of impairment Estimates range between 50-70% of youth involved in the juvenile justice system having a diagnosable mental health disorder

Surprised? Of Course Not! Studies have long found that factors such as poor school performance, truancy, dropping out, alcohol and drug use, family issues, and mental health concerns are correlated with delinquency

What’s Wrong with This Picture? The onset of these factors are often early The local school, social services, and community mental service agencies are many times aware of these issues Adequate attention and services have not likely been made available and/or provided in order to address

The Result – Lack of Early Intervention and Treatment = Juvenile Justice to the Rescue! The neglect of educational and mental needs of our youth often results in aging into the juvenile justice system with intensified needs and even less resources available to assist

The Juvenile Justice System – More of the Same? Intake → Informal Adjustment or Court Court → Detention Detention →Probation Probation →Residential/Institutional Care Residential/Institutional Care→Aftercare Transition

Juvenile Justice Goals- Rehabilitation and Reduce Recidivism Most successful if diversionary services implemented in partnership with community educational and mental health agencies involving youth and family in service plan Least successful if institutional services relied upon in isolation of community educational, mental health agencies, and family

Challenge – Keep Youth in the Community and Prevent Institutional Care Maryland - Over-Reliance on state operated residential care programs Localities have little or no responsibility to provide services to youth involved in the juvenile justice system Youth unnecessarily detained, minimally delinquent youth exposed to severely delinquent youth, overcrowding in detention, inappropriate placements, and youth not being placed close to family and other support systems

Challenge – Keep Youth in the Community and Prevent Institutional Care Continued System - redesign to create more local, community programs and viable options outside of state care for the juvenile court Determine what the state expends for a particular locality for detention and other residential care - administer these funds locally with the court/locality in consultation with youth/family in deciding how best to expend in providing services Wrap around model - Local control of funding creates incentives to develop less expensive options for treatment of youth and reach youth at earlier stages in the judicial process with an increased chance for success

Challenge – Initiate Transition Planning at Time of Residential Placement Development of residential and transition service plan at time of placement Educational records required at time of placement including IEP Comprehensive mental health screening and assessment required at time of admission with consultation with youth and parents and community agencies

Challenge – Comprehensive Residential Educational and Mental Health Services Implementation of IEP within 5 days and coordination in transitioning back to community GED, vocational, post-secondary, employment planning Provision of individualized mental health services consistent with assessment to include –Substance abuse treatment –Counseling programs –Psychiatric services/medications –Suicide prevention protocol –Plan for continued services upon release

Challenge – Continuity of Case Management Community Case Manager – must be coordinated with all community service agencies and ongoing during residential care and transition back into the community Maintain services and support to family during residential care in preparation for transition

Knowing What’s Wrong, We Must Do What is Right A comprehensive and community-based educational and mental health service system - critical to preventing juvenile justice involvement/penetration Local blended and pooled funding streams Youth and Family involvement in the design and implementation of services Early transition planning to ensure continued educational and mental health programming that provides a wide array of traditional and alternative services Technical assistance that is field responsive promoting incentives for performance and recognizing that one size does not fit all