Children in jail and the need for mental health care

By Donne Trotter

Guest columnist

The high number of Cook County Jail inmates with some form of mental illness has won the jail the unfortunate distinction as "America's Largest Mental Health Hospital." Lesser known but just as unfortunate is the sad fact that juvenile prisons and detention centers throughout Illinois have become mini-mental health hospitals.

More than 1,000 kids are locked in cells across Illinois. Each child has a unique life story, but most of those children have one thing in common: a mental health condition.

Seven of every 10 youths arrested meet the diagnostic criteria for having a mental health condition, and one in five lives with a serious mental health condition. Most often that condition has played a role, either major or minor, in the behavior that led to the child's incarceration. If not identified promptly and treated, there's a strong likelihood that a second arrest will follow and then a third and on and on.

The existence of untreated mental health conditions is well known to the judges, prosecutors, defenders and police in the juvenile justice system. They are used to seeing children in courtrooms with histories of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression or other mental health challenges.

Nearly every day, they grapple with a series of similar "what if" questions.

What if a professional had seen that child months earlier and identified what was troubling him?

What if a counselor had helped the child and his parents?

What if the child had received the mental health services and, if needed, drugs to help with the mental condition?

What if there had been follow-up and uninterrupted treatment following incarceration?

We in Illinois are not doing enough to reach children with mental health conditions. And when we do reach them, too often the help is inadequate or temporary.

A state task force recently issued a detailed report with 14 recommendations to improve how we respond to these children in crisis. If that road map is followed, more children with mental health conditions will be identified, and the state will find the money - some likely available by maximizing Medicaid and private insurance benefits - to pay for professional mental health services as early as possible. We also must make certain mental health treatment is not interrupted and that needed treatment and medicine continue to be provided after a child is released from jail or prison.

In short, we must help children who cannot help themselves.

Not only do these children need our help to succeed in life, but also it will be money well spent to protect our neighborhoods and avoid costlier prisons in the future.

Donne Trotter of Chicago, served in the Illinois General Assembly for 25 years and was assistant majority leader when he retired from the Senate in January. He sponsored the legislation creating the Illinois Mental Health Opportunities for Youth Diversion Task Force, which recently issued a report with 14 recommendations. https://www.iljp.org/reports/stemmingthetide