Mental health interventions for youth who are incarcerated: A systematic review of literature.

Abstract

To promote the safety and well-being of youth who are incarcerated, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education identified the importance of evidence-based mental health interventions. The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize and synthesize intervention research focusing on the mental health of youth who are incarcerated since the publication of Guiding Principles for Providing High-Quality Education in Juvenile Justice Secure Care Settings. ProQuest and Ebsco databases were searched to identify relevant published studies from 2015 to 2020. Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies mainly focused on cognitive-behavior interventions and included the following outcome domains: symptoms, functioning, personal growth, and multiple domains. To evaluate study quality, modified versions of Gersten et al.'s (2005) group design and Mulcahy et al.'s (2016) single-case design quality indicators were used.Of concern are the small number of studies, methodological limitations within studies, and lack of a common intervention and outcomes of focus that limit individual study conclusions and evaluation across studies. In particular, studies rarely included necessary information, such as participant mental health characteristics, interventionist training or qualifications, intervention details, and/or measures/reports of treatment integrity. For the Guiding Principles to be realized, one key issue is for government funding to target high-quality mental health interventions in juvenile correctional facilities within identified target areas. Public Policy Relevance StatementNo systematic literature review has addressed progress on mental health interventions since the publication of the Guiding Principles for Providing High-Quality Education in Juvenile Justice Secure Care Settings. This review brings to light the urgent need for high-quality research that continues to consider effects on symptoms, functioning, and personal growth as outcomes, as well as additional short-and long-term outcomes. While some of the reviewed interventions appear promising in the secure care setting and are based on solid research, additional studies are needed to clearly chart a path forward for research, policy, and practice. aaa T he core philosophy of the juvenile correctional system in the U.S. is that youth are qualitatively different than adults and they can be educated and rehabilitated (Gagnon & Barber, 2019). This view has been substantiated by neuroscience (Steinberg, 2009) and supported via court decisions (e.g., Graham v. Florida, 2010;Roper v. Simmons, 2005). However, the promise of education and rehabilitation has too often been unfulfilled. In response, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice (U.S. DOE/DOJ) collaborated to publish the groundbreaking Guiding Principles for Providing High-Quality Education in Juvenile Justice Secure Care Settings (2014). While providing a framework for practice, continued research is necessary within each of the principles to provide further guidance to practitioners.Consider...

Providing high-quality education in juvenile corrections: Next steps.

“…The purpose of this discussion is to evaluate research progress since publication of the Guiding Principles (U. S. Departments of Education & Justice, 2014) based on our review of Principle II, III, and V in the current article. Discussion of research progress on Principle I (mental health: Gagnon et al, 2021a;behavior: Gagnon et al, 2021b) and Principle II (Hunter et al, 2021) are included in separate literature reviews in this special section and only summarized here. Based on these studies collectively, we address implications and directions for research, policy, and practice.…”

“…Now, more than 5 years after issuing this historic document, we believe it is important to review the status of research related to these principles. As such, our purpose is to summarize the research, including brief sections on the principles for which separate literature reviews are included in this special section (Principle I: Gagnon et al, 2021a; Principle II: Hunter et al, 2021) and review of studies for Principles III and V, as well as to look at patterns across all of the reviewed studies. Based on this information, we chart a path forward, including recommendations for research, policy, and practice.…”

Interventions addressing incarcerated youth behavior: A review of literature.

“…In MTSS, universal or school-wide/facility-wide behavioral supports (Tier I) are coupled with selective interventions (Tier II) that support youth with limited/low intensity behavioral needs and those with a high risk of behavior problems (Gagnon et al, 2020). Gagnon et al (2021) also noted that MTSS includes specified or individualized supports (Tier III) for youth with the most significant behavioral needs.…”

The imperative of high-quality education in juvenile corrections: An introduction to the special section.

“…In the final article of this Special Section, Gagnon, Ross Benedick, and Mason-William (2021) detail the overarching search procedures from which all of the literature reviews emanated. In addition to a brief summarization of Principles I and IV, the authors also discern that no studies related to Principle II emanated from the search procedures.…”

“…In the final article, Gagnon, Ross Benedick, and Mason-William (2021) also summarize data on quality indicators for studies across all of the principles and articles in the Special Section and provide implications for research, policy, and practice. In terms of study quality, the authors conveyed the infrequency of treatment fidelity, as well as the lack of reporting if student participants had mental disorders or disabilities.…”