Mentally ill kids warehoused at TYC

Just like in the adult prison system which warehouses tens of thousands of mentally ill offenders, the Texas Youth Commission has struggled for years with how to manage mentally ill youth, who make up between 38-50% of incarcerated kids according to an article by Lisa Sandberg in this morning's Houston Chronicle ("Mentally ill posing challenge for TYC," April 22).

Reports Sandberg, of those identified as mentally impaired, only 17% were committed to TYC for violent felonies, and another 3% for violent misdemeanors. Others more closely fit the profile of a young man who has been on suicide watch at TYC since the day he arrived there, who

had two brushes with the law, including taking his father's car without permission, before being sentenced to TYC last year for driving without a license and violating curfew.

It's almost unfathomable to me that those offenses would earn incarceration in a youth prison - all of them, if truth be told, I committed myself as a teenager. But it's likely the judge chose that option because the locals couldn't handle the kid's real problems. The Chronicle reported that "Psychiatrists hired by TYC diagnosed him with major depression, bipolar and schizoaffective disorders and drug dependence."

For many such kids, incarceration makes their condition worse and therefore makes the public less safe when they're finally, inevitably released, say those in the know:

Until she resigned under pressure last week, Corrine Alvarez-Sanders, TYC's assistant deputy executive director for rehabilitative services, had worked with young inmates for 15 years and said too many who are mentally ill don't get appropriate treatment and leave in worse condition than when they arrived.

Secured lockups are appropriate for some mentally ill offenders with violent tendencies, but every one of those would be better served in smaller residential treatment centers, she said.

"I don't want to say that all of our facilities are producing outcomes that are worse. But what's clear to us is the interventions don't match the specialized needs that are present," Alvarez-Sanders said.

All too often, poorly trained staff extend the TYC terms of mentally ill inmates, confusing a mental health issue with a bad attitude or anti-social behavior, she said.

The adult system faces same issue of warehousing the mentally ill, not just TYC. This is how society has chosen to handle mental illness across the board - through the criminal justice system. To my mind it's an awful disgrace.