Difficult to Place: Youth with Mental Health Needs in California Juvenile Justice

This report presents the findings of Youth Law Center’s research into placement issues for juvenile justice youth with mental health needs in 10 California counties.  The focus of the research was youth with mental health needs who have been ordered by the juvenile court to be placed in a non-secure placement, but who remain incarcerated in a secure setting because they have not yet been placed.

This research provides further insight into the issues brought to light by the Congressional reports, Incarceration of Youth Who Are Waiting for Community Mental Health Services in the United States (July 2004), and the California-specific report, Incarceration of Youth Who Are Waiting for Community Mental Health Services in California (January 2005).  The alarm sounded by those earlier reports was well founded.  But what we have learned from this work is that the situation is far from hopeless.  The report makes concrete suggestions for reducing placement delay.