COLUMBIA — Incarcerated youth in need of specialized mental health care started receiving it this week after a new psychiatric treatment center opened in Columbia.
The facility, built with $23 million in state funds, aims to fill in the gaps for children and teenagers who do not need more intensive psychiatric hospitalization but whose needs go beyond what the state’s detention centers for youth can provide.
“Our juvenile justice facilities are not designed to function as intensive mental health treatment centers, yet that is increasingly what we have been asked to do,” said Eden Hendrick, head of the Department of Juvenile Justice, in a statement. “Youth with the highest clinical needs deserve specialized treatment in an appropriate therapeutic setting.”
The effort to open the center began more than five years ago when advocates and agency heads sounded the alarm on inadequate treatment. Private treatment centers took some teenagers with serious mental and behavioral health concerns, but not everyone was eligible.
In 2022, legislators set aside funding in the state budget to construct the center.
At capacity, the 24,000-square-foot building can hold 24 people between the ages of 12 and 21 who would otherwise be housed at the state’s youth detention center. So far, four youth have transferred there from the juvenile justice agency’s detention center.
Correct Care of South Carolina, a local branch of a national company that provides behavioral health services, will operate it.
The treatment center is named after Bill Byars, the longtime family court judge who led the juvenile justice department for eight years. Before his death in 2019, Byars was credited with turning the agency around after overcrowding and abuse led to federal court orders. Following Byars’ 2011 departure and budget cuts, though, the agency again faces issues with overcrowding and understaffing.
Mental health problems are prevalent among youth involved in the justice system. As many as 70% of teenagers in detention centers nationwide have a diagnosable mental health problem, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice. Often, those youth are grappling with trauma, substance abuse issues and other behavioral health problems. Many go untreated before entering the state juvenile justice system, according to the DJJ.
“The Byars Treatment Center will ensure those youth receive the level of care they need while allowing DJJ to focus on the rehabilitation and safety of other justice-involved youth,” Hendrick said in a statement.