A new congressional report has revealed that thousands of children with severe mental health conditions are being held in juvenile detention for no criminal reason other than that there aren’t enough options for receiving much-needed mental health services. Those who look after children are looking for alternatives to juvenile detention but do not believe there are many options available. Between February 2026 and March 2024, staff members of U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff and U.S. Representative Jen Kiggans reported back from reviewing 180 juvenile detention centres in the United States.
Approximately half of the facilities that responded to the survey indicated they had kept children locked up because there were no available places to transfer them for mental health treatment, while other facilities reported some children were detained for as long as four to six months because they were waiting for an appropriate placement to become available.
Each of the surveyed facilities reported the difficulties that the staff faced in trying to provide services for children while they were detained in juvenile detention. One North Dakota facility reported the absence of any secure public placement options available for mentally ill youths charged with violent offenses, resulting in the need to jail them for no longer than necessary.
The advocacy organizations argue that the present state of crisis in regards to mental health for children stems from a long history of inadequate investment in program funding for children’s mental health. The problems that exist within the system are compounded by the fact that juvenile detention/corrections staff, who go into this field to provide for the safety of the children in their keeping but are not trained as healthcare professionals, feel as if they have no control over the situation while they watch children deteriorate in their cells waiting for treatment. Families are faced with making impossible decisions because they cannot find or afford the level of treatment needed for their child.
The report calls for a significant investment in the development of child mental health emergency service infrastructure, including increased residential placement, enhanced reimbursement rates for intensive outpatient services, and the development of more community alternatives to detention. The report’s findings call into question the values of a nation that professes to care for children, while placing some of its most at-risk children in jails instead of treatment facilities.
Source: NPR – Congressional Report on Child Mental Health and Incarceration
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