GEORGIA (WALB) — A new bipartisan investigation has uncovered children with special needs being incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities instead of receiving critical mental health care.

U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff revealed the findings today, showing dozens of facilities nationwide are locking up vulnerable children rather than providing proper treatment.

Senator Ossoff, alongside Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, released the first report from their joint investigation during a virtual press conference. A Georgia mother and a public health professor joined the senator to discuss the report’s implications.

The investigation aims to ensure children with special needs receive the care they deserve in their communities.

Georgia mother shares personal experience

Amanda Figures, a Georgia mother whose son suffers from mental illness, joined the meeting calling for proper medical care for her son. Figures said she has been trying to get him the help he needed, but instead, her son was sent to juvenile detention.

Figures said, “[her son] did not get the proper mental and medical care he needed throughout his childhood, which led him to have problems in school, because I was not able to get him the care that he needed in the community. He deserves the quality mental health care, not to be locked up in a juvenile detention facility.”

Expert highlights care delays

Dr. Rebecca Fix from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health said many children she has worked with end up spending extra time in facilities due to the lack of mental health care.

“One child I worked with had significant trauma both before and during his detention. He was locked up for two years and was eventually scheduled to be released,” Fix said. “However, because no treatment bed at a group home with mental health services was available, he remained in detention for nearly a year longer. He wasn’t waiting for court. He was waiting for care.”

Mental health care for rural communities

WALB asked Senator Ossoff what he would recommend for children in rural areas like Southwest Georgia, which already lack resources such as pediatric care, and how the bipartisan bill will provide youth mental health care.

Ossoff said he has made investing in health care and mental health care services in rural Georgia one of his highest priorities. He said his team will work to deliver more resources for health care and pediatric care in rural parts of the state.

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