One of the original and ongoing core missions of PESA is our involvement with and support of Teen Court. The Los Angeles Superior Court diversion program is one of California’s oldest but by no means the state’s only such program. Indeed, an organization known as CAYC—California Association of Youth Courts—supports and promotes juvenile justice programs throughout the state. At the group’s recent virtual gathering, an important program entitled “Intersections of Mental Health and Juvenile Justice” was presented, and PESA was honored to have its very own Dr. Michael Johnson, director of behavioral health, as a panelist.
Along with Dr. Amy Bacharach, senior research analyst with the Judicial Council of California and Chris Rassmussen, retired San Francisco Bay Area police officer and current policy and procedure administrator for public safety at Stanford University, the three addressed critical issues of how matters of mental health and the juvenile justice system often collide with detrimental effect, but also how strides are being made to address the problems. Some of the questions discussed included:
What causes mental health challenges?
The roots are many, according to the panelists: Trauma, abuse, neglect, drug and alcohol use, systemic racism, poverty, genetic and biological disorders, and more. And many of these underlying causes have been exacerbated by the disruption and isolation brought on by the COVID pandemic.
Dr. Johnson gave the example of children born with autism, some of whom “function in life but are not [able to] get a clear understanding of what life is all about,” and as a result, "some of these adolescents enter the justice system without an understanding of how or why they got there."
Bacharach offered a sobering statistic: 80 to 100 percent of girls in the juvenile justice system have a history of sexual abuse, and this often leads to depression and other issues.
Why are mental health disorders so prevalent among teens?
Another complex question, the panelists explained, without a single, simple answer. But with blame being laid on everything from drugs (they’re stronger and more readily available than for past generations); internet access (too much harmful information is too easily accessible without proper guidance or context); social media (the crushing peer pressure put on young, impressionable minds) … and all of this heaped upon developing brains and hormone-charged bodies, is it any wonder mental health disorders in teens are surging? The event’s youth moderator, Wesley Liu, pointed out that according to a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 49.5 percent of adolescents encounter a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.
What should juvenile justice systems do to identify and help solve mental health disorders?
Here, the panelists offered numerous concrete suggestions. “Every child who comes in contact with the juvenile justice system needs to be assessed throughout their time in the system,” said Dr. Johnson, and provided the support and services they might need. “Normalize mental illness,” said Rassmussen. He explained how in San Mateo County, they have created the Youth SOS program, a crisis-response team specifically for children. When a child is in crisis in a school setting, rather than send uniformed officers and an ambulance which further traumatizes the youth, they dispatch a mental health professional and a simple van for transportation, which helps destigmatize and lessen the trauma of such an event.
The 90-minute discussion, which is available for viewing on YouTube, concluded with a Q&A session in which attendees and panelists further explored the critical intersection between mental health and the juvenile justice system. We thank CAYC for the opportunity to participate in this important event. ■
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