As cash-starved states slash mental health programs in communities and schools, they are increasingly relying on the juvenile corrections system to handle a generation of young offenders with psychiatric disorders. About two-thirds of the nation's juvenile inmates – who numbered 92,854 in 2006, down from 107,000 in 1999 – have at least one mental illness, according to surveys of youth prisons, and are more in need of therapy than punishment.I saw this article on the front page of the Times this morning and thought to myself, "Oh, man, it is way too early to deal with that." I finally read it, and yes, it's absolutely horrific. I was able to make it as far as the part where the grandmother of one of the young men discussed in the story "asked not to be identified because of the stigma of having a grandson who is mentally ill" before I had to stop for a couple of minutes and go walk around; your own breaking point may vary. Please do read it, but know that it's rough going.
Monday, August 10, 2009
6
Heartbreak.Anger.Frustration.Heartbreak.Hopelessness.
I, for one, would like Tom Cruise to weigh in on this.
Reached for comment, Tomkat howled "It's all in their heads."
This is horrible, tragic, and nothing at all new. Not simply for juveniles, but throughout the corrections system.
What has changed, if anything, is the numbers. But we prioritize differently in this country, it seems--we want not to be taxed, yet demand strong but pricey national defense and "Homeland Security," and we expect the "markets" to take care of everything.
So given that our pens rapidly are going private at the state and local levels, maybe we can ask the "market" to handle this.
Oh well, the market does already kinda' (try to) handle this. Prison labor contracted by private companies--Dell and starbucks used some/ so does zexy! vicroria's secret (which just seems CRUEL to use locked up dudes for that)--is on the rise in good part because prisons themselves are being privatized (like the military with Haliburton) and these orgs are being allowed to use the prisoners to recoup their investment (the underpaid labor understanding is built into the private contracts).
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/07/what-do-prisoners-make-victorias-secret
As for mental health. Well, rivate markets would say that they should be mae available for cheap clinical testing for drugs that, when approved, would ultimately benefit us non-criminal/lucky types.
Cheer up, guys. At least AstraZeneca makes a killing. Every time a kid in Iraq or a juvie facility in the US is prescribed Seroquel off-label, an AstraZeneca exec gets his wings.