[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 24, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E275-E276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         INTRODUCTION OF THE MENTAL HEALTH JUVENILE JUSTICE ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 24, 1999

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to 
join my colleagues Representatives Kaptur and Strickland, and our other 
cosponsors, in introducing the Mental Health Juvenile Justice Act.
  Our nation's juvenile justice facilities are increasingly 
overcrowded, unsafe, and inadequately staffed. We need to reform our 
juvenile justice system to ensure that it preserves the basic rights 
and human dignity of the children and youth housed in its facilities 
and that it does not become a dumping ground for youth who would be 
better served in mental health and substance abuse treatment programs.
  Too many young people are being punished--rather than treated--for 
their troubles. Treatment and other services simply are not available 
when they should be, and as a result children are literally churned up 
inside the juvenile justice system.
  The particular characteristics of criminal acts of individual 
juveniles require us to have a range of appropriate responses. 
Alternatives to incarceration will not work for all youth. But we need 
to ensure that even those youth who do serve time in correctional 
facilities are safe from abuse and have access to appropriate medical 
and psychiatric treatment.
  Unfortunately, this is not currently the case.
  Each year, more than one million children come in contact in some way 
with the juvenile justice system. Over 100,000 of these youth are 
detained in a correctional facility.
  The rate of mental disorders is significantly higher among the 
juvenile justice population than among youths in the general 
population. Federal studies suggest that as many as 60% of incarcerated 
youth have some mental health disorder and 20% have a severe disorder. 
In my home state of California, a recent study by the California Youth 
Authority found that 35% of boys in its custody and 73% of girls need 
mental health or substance abuse treatment.
  In an article published in March of last year, reporter Fox 
Butterfield wrote in The New York Times that ``jails and prisons have 
become the nation's new mental hospitals.'' In the article, Dr. Linda 
Reyes, a psychologist and assistant executive director of the Texas 
Youth Commission called the incarceration of adolescents with mental 
disorders ``tragic and absurd.'' ``The system we have created is 
totally ineffective,'' said Dr. Reyes.
  Many youngsters in the juvenile justice system have committed minor, 
non-violent offenses or status offenses. The incarceration of these 
youngsters is often the result of inadequate local mental health 
services. These youngsters, their families, and society, could be 
better served if we made available appropriate local mental health, 
substance abuse, and educational services as an alternative to 
incarceration, particularly for first offenders and non-violent 
offenses.
  Such services have proven more effective than incarceration in 
preventing troubled young people from re-offending and are less 
expensive than prison. In the long run, they are even more cost-
effective to us as a society, because they increase the odds that a 
young person will become a responsible, productive, taxpaying citizen 
rather than a permanent ward of the state.
  Last November, Amnesty International released a report indicating an 
increasing problem of youthful offenders being subjected to physical 
abuse and a lack of appropriate services. The report documents 
incidents in which youth were shackled, sprayed with chemicals, over-
medicated, and even punished with electro-shock devices.
  Amnesty International also found that 38 states housed juveniles in 
adult prisons with no special programs or educational services. Youth 
in these adult facilities are five times more likely to be sexually 
assaulted, twice as likely to be beaten by staff, and eight times more 
likely to commit suicide than children in juvenile facilities.
  One incident in Amnesty's report involved a youth from California 
named Nicholaus Contreraz. At last count, the California Youth 
Authority's correctional institutions held 25% more youth than their 
specified capacity; but the state also sends hundreds of children to 
out-of-state facilities which would not be licensed under California's 
own state laws and which receive very little oversight from the 
authorities responsible for placing children in them.
  Nicholaus Contreraz died in March of last year at one such facility, 
while staff forced him

[[Page E276]]

to do ``push-ups,'' despite clear signs of his poor physical health. 
His body was found with 71 cuts, bruises, and abrasions.
  California has since stopped sending children to this facility and 
action has been taken by the state of Arizona against the individuals 
responsible. Perhaps if we had clearer rules and better oversight, 
however, conditions like those that contributed to Nicholaus' death 
would never occur, or at least would be corrected before they resulted 
in fatalities. Tragically, however, no such system is now in place.
  The bill we are introducing today, the Mental Health Juvenile Justice 
Act, would help create alternatives to incarceration, particularly for 
first-time non-violent offenders, and improve conditions in youth 
correctional institutions by:
  Providing funds to train juvenile justice personnel on the 
identification and need for appropriate treatment of mental disorders 
and substance abuse, and on the use of community-based alternatives to 
placement in juvenile correctional facilities.
  Providing block grant funds and competitive grants to states and 
localities to develop local mental health diversion programs for 
children who come into contact with the justice system and broaden 
access to mental health and substances abuse treatment programs for 
incarcerated children with emotional disorders.
  Establishing a Federal Council to report to Congress on 
recommendations to improve the treatment of youth with serious 
emotional and behaviorial disorders who come into contact with the 
justice system.
  Strengthening federal courts' ability to remedy abusive conditions in 
state facilities under which juvenile offenders and prisoners with 
mental illness are being held.
  Our bill addresses important issues in the lives of our nation's 
young people and for all of our society. As Michael Faenza, President 
of the National Mental Health Association has said, ``Treating young 
people, with or without mental disorders, in dehumanizing ways is not 
the answer to question of crime prevention and public safety. And it's 
not the way to make children productive, law-abiding, and caring 
citizens.''
  I look forward to working with my colleagues in enacting this 
legislation.

                          ____________________