EDITORIAL: Include incarcerated kids in mental health reforms

Jan. 3—Many incarcerated juveniles have sad histories that extend back to long before their contact with the judicial system. Many come from abusive or neglectful homes, have been bounced among numerous foster homes, struggle to read and learn, and have multiple mental health challenges.

In December, this editorial board urged lawmakers to find solutions to the huge challenges the state's families face in securing appropriate and timely mental health care for their children. Recent news prompts us now to ask legislators to extend their work to encompass incarcerated kids.

Just before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it concluded a two-year investigation into conditions of incarcerated youth in the state. The department found the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire violates children's constitutional rights because of isolation practices and a failure to provide adequate mental health services.

As tragic as is the gap between mental health needs and available services for any child, the finding demonstrates the state also is failing a group of children who are arguably the most at-risk in our population — juvenile offenders who likely dealt with hardships at home and school before they ended up in prison.

"Our investigation uncovered systemic evidence that children are deprived of the mental health and special education services they need to become productive, successful adults," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. In a letter at the beginning of the report on the department's findings, Clarke wrote: "Specifically, we find that Manson's isolation practices and inadequate mental health services seriously harm children and place them at substantial risk of serious harm."

The department reports most of the youth who end up at Manson arrive there with learning disabilities and mental health issues, but do not receive appropriate and adequate special education services and mental health treatment once incarcerated. Prison officials also harshly punish kids, sometimes for fairly minor actions such as mouthing off, by placing them in solitary confinement. Such isolation is particularly detrimental for young people and especially so for those who already are troubled.

One example detailed in the report is of a boy who arrived at Manson as a 15-year-old pretrial detainee. Before being sent to prison, he experienced violence and abuse, was classified as "emotionally disturbed" and received 10 hours of special education services weekly. Prison intake officials, however, determined he did not have mental health issues that required treatment, and reduced his special education services to one hour a week without explaining why.

While it might be difficult for the public to muster overpowering sympathy for young offenders — indeed, we've seen a push for harsher punishments for juvenile crime in the wake of a recent uptick of vandalism and car thefts — we must remember these kids are still kids. Regardless of what we feel about their actions and crimes, if incarceration serves only to make them angrier and more mentally ill, their future potentials as productive members of society will not be realized and the chance they will become adult offenders and detainees increases. All of us lose when this occurs.

It also is important to remember that, as the Department of Justice report points out, these kids do not forfeit their federal rights in incarceration. Specifically, the department report cited a probable violation at Manson of Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment, Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection under the law and the stipulations of the Individuals With Disabilities Act.

Also disturbing is the fact that as of early December, some 55 percent of Manson's adult and youth population was Black. Blacks account for about 12 percent of the state's overall population. Oft-cited concerns about a so-called school-to-prison pipeline for Black boys, as well as unequal treatment of minorities by police and the judicial system seem to be reinforced by this problematic prison population statistic.

As lawmakers already are poised to grapple with the issue of assuring appropriate and available mental health care for all children in the upcoming legislative session, we urge them to truly be inclusive in their actions. Thinking about all kids means including incarcerated children, many of whom were dealing with more than a lifetime's worth of challenges before being imprisoned. They must not be forgotten in legislative decision-making.

The Day editorial board meets regularly with political, business and community leaders and convenes weekly to formulate editorial viewpoints. It is composed of President and Publisher Tim Dwyer, Managing Editor Izaskun E. Larrañeta, staff writer Erica Moser and retired deputy managing editor Lisa McGinley. However, only the publisher and editorial page editor are responsible for developing the editorial opinions. The board operates independently from the Day newsroom.

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