The National Center for Youth Law, Disability Rights Texas, and Texas Appleseed have issued a new report: Thinking Outside the Cell: Alternatives to Incarceration for Youth with Mental Health Needs.
The report features three case studies of youth confined to the Texas Youth Commission’s (TYC) Corsicana Residential Treatment Center, a facility for youth with serious mental health needs. The stories highlight the significant challenges youth with mental health needs face before and after commitment to TYC. They also demonstrate that access to appropriate and effective community-based mental health services is vital to addressing the underlying reasons for many youths’ offenses, thus reducing recidivism, and preventing deeper involvement with juvenile and criminal justice systems. The report also features strategies for community-based intervention now being implemented in Texas and other jurisdictions, and makes policy recommendations.
NCYL has been working with local advocacy groups in Texas to get the Department of Justice to investigate accounts of widespread unsafe conditions and serious program deficiencies in 10 secure lockdown facilities operated by the TYC – conditions that violate youths’ Constitutional rights and jeopardize their rehabilitation. The groups have also been advocating for restructuring of the juvenile justice system to more effectively and efficiently meet youths’ needs.
