SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – A bipartisan effort aimed at improving kids’ mental health.
Thursday, Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff held a press conference making several announcements, after a year long investigation by his team.
Senator Ossoff, in partnership with Republican Congresswoman Jen Kiggans of Virginia, said they launched a bipartisan investigation into the incarceration of children with mental health issues.
They claim many children with special needs don’t have the proper facilities and resources to address their real needs.
They’re being held at juvenile detention facilities, instead of hospitals. Senator Ossoff held a press conference to talk about the findings of the investigation.
He alleged 75 facilities in 25 states reported that they kept children at juvenile detention centers who could be eligible for release to mental health programs.
Instead, they remained in detention centers because the care they needed or the space wasn’t available.
The report shows some children were detained in juvenile centers for up to nine months or a year.
He says there need to be more facilities and more capacity for children needing specialized care.
“The problem goes further. Some facilities even reported holding children with special needs who don’t have any charges. 20 facilities reported detaining children with no charges at all or with minor charges that would not normally justify detention,” said Dr. Rebecca Fix, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
This has been a decades old problem, the lack of juvenile access to mental health resources.
Senator Ossoff and Congresswoman Kiggans said they hope to continue raising awareness.
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