Juveniles and Psychiatric Institutionalization: Toward Better Due Process and Treatment Review in the United States

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) can be used as a framework to examine issues regarding psychiatric institutionalization of juveniles in the United States. The current U.S. system allows children diagnosed with relatively mild, non-psychotic disorders or exhibiting delinquent behaviors to be placed in institutions. Failure to regulate treatment in these faciltities also results in abuses by the treatment providers. Parents can institutionalize a child under the guise of mental health "treatment" because they disapprove of the child's lifestyle choices. In some states, parents can waive the child's right to an impartial hearing before institutionalization. The serious social, mental, and physical health consequences of erroneous deprivation of liberty are discussed. Recommendations include that the U.S. ratify the CRC, guarantee due process for juveniles faced with institutionalization, conduct systematic treatment reviews, and correct institutional abuses.