Next, a case study from 2003 addresses mental illness and crime from a juvenile perspective. In 2003, the media and advocates for juvenile justice had revealed years of abuse and suicides in juvenile correctional facilities in California. This sparked a conversation about what was truly happening behind bars for youth and the mental health of those involved both prior to and during incarceration. Inspired by pubic outrage, the Prison Law Office sued the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), previously known as the CYA. The lawsuit perused by the Prison Law Office enforced the DJJ to implement six remedial plans for health, sex behaviour treatment, disabilities services, educational systems, safety, and mental health treatment. This plan aimed to not only recover from past abuses and mental health outcries, but ensure that no further abuse would occur and that any youth in need of mental health services would be entitled to them as such (Ajmani, 2016). The Mental Health Remedial plan specifically aimed to build a system involving services such as screening and assessment, diagnosis, psychotherapeutic treatment, and mental health care in multiple settings. This plan …show more content…
When young offenders are placed in the system and forced to live each day exposed to other juvenile delinquents, they are still subjected to violence and become more heavily involved in gang culture. This environment is not mentally or physically healthy. Mental health care is among the top three continuing problems since the lawsuit as the Mental Health Remedial Plan is one of the many poorly implemented remedial plans. Analyses of the plan and its effectiveness revealed that the DJJ does not provide sufficient mental health treatment or therapy due to not enough qualified individuals involved in the services (Ajmani,