NCJ Number
98508
Date Published
1984
Length
23 pages
Annotation
An analysis of the interactions of the legal and mental health systems in dealing with treatment issues related to aggressive, disturbed adolescents uses court decisions and clinical examples to clarify the roles of training schools and treatment facilities.
Abstract
Aggressive adolescents encounter the justice system in three contexts: the seeking of dispositions following the commission of criminal offenses, class action suits aimed at assuring procedural protections, and class action suits seeking improvement in institutional conditions and treatment. The adoption of the social welfare model in the early years of this century led to heavy reliance on developmental psychology and psychiatrically oriented treatment. This approach was misused, and misuses coupled with financial neglect led to inappropriate placement practices and institutions that were countertherapeutic. Judicial discretion based on the vague standard of the best interests of the child compounded these problems. Reform began in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court established a series of procedural protections for minors facing incarceration. The reforms have continued and have led to the removal of status offenders from closed correctional facilities, upgrading of institutional conditions, implementation of due process protections, and extension of limited rights to treatment. However, the pace of reform has slowed. In 1979, the Supreme Court refused to extend the same rights to youths committed to psychiatric hospitals as it had in 1967 to those in correctional facilities. They have also not declared an absolute right to treatment. Fiscal restraint and weakened right to treatment. Fiscal restraint and weakened support for the mental health establishment have been further problems. However, the power of the court can be a means of promoting treatment for this difficult group of adolescents. Seventeen references are listed.