Juvenile Justice System Essay

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Pages: 3

Many of these youth are unnecessarily placed in or referred to the juvenile justice system for relatively minor, non-violent offenses, often in a misguided attempt to obtain treatment services that are lacking in the community. However, the unfortunate irony of this approach is that the mental health services typically available to youth in the juvenile justice system are often inadequate or simply unavailable, as documented by a series of investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice.7Instead of relying on the justice system to address a youth’s mental health needs, it is now recognized that the more appropriate and effective response involves community-based treatment interventions that engage youth and their families.
The advancements across the country for youth with mental health needs are significant. Many more jurisdictions are searching for new ways to help youth with mental health needs in the juvenile justice system. These systems could benefit substantially from this new knowledge and these new resources if they had the opportunity. Now they do. The MacArthur Foundation recently supported the establishment of the Mental Health Juvenile Justice Collaborative for Change: A Training, Technical Assistance and
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However, the unfortunate irony of this approach is that the mental health services typically available to youth in the juvenile justice system are often inadequate or simply unavailable, as documented by a series of investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Instead of relying on the justice system to address a youth’s mental health needs, it is now recognized that the more appropriate and effective response involves community-based treatment interventions that engage youth and their