Health and Justice for Youth

About the Health and Justice for Youth Campaign

PHR's Health and Justice for Youth Campaign mobilizes health professionals to advocate for the health and human rights of young people in the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

Over-reliance on incarceration has resulted in youth being "warehoused" in harmful and unhealthy conditions. Lack of appropriate community services leads the crowded juvenile system to serve as a crude hospital for youth with mental illness, "criminalizing" their needs rather than providing care and treatment.

Originally intended to provide guidance and rehabilitation, the juvenile justice has shifted to a "get tough" philosophy, enacting policies that focus on retribution and make it easier to try youth in the adult criminal system.

Why Health Professionals Are Needed:

Health professionals are uniquely qualified to lend expertise regarding children's health needs, growth, development, and behavior and can guide best practices and polices for creating rehabilitative services that address the medical and mental health needs of children at risk.  They advocate for:

Higher quality health services, including mental health care, for youth

Approximately 50-75 % of youth in the juvenile justice system have mental disorders, substantially higher rates than mental disorders of children in the general population (25%). Youth in the justice system with serious health and mental health concerns have severely limited access to comprehensive, quality treatment. (Read more)

Greater options for alternatives to detention and incarceration

Over-reliance on incarceration has led to severe overcrowding in juvenile institutions. Diversion and community-based alternatives are better able to address individualized needs of children through developmentally appropriate, family-focused and strength-based services without exposing them to unnecessarily restrictive, and often traumatizing settings.  (Read more)

Limiting the transfer of youth to the adult criminal justice system

Nearly every state has changed its laws to make it easier to prosecute youth as adults. Health professionals can advocate for policy changes based on the latest scientific brain research and its relevance to adolescent behavior, decision-making, culpability, and amenability.  (Read more)

Learn about the Supreme Court decision to end the juvenile death penalty and read about PHR's Health Professionals Call to Abolish the Juvenile Death Penalty, endorsed by experts across the country, including three former US Surgeons General.

Learn about state-based campaigns