Intersection of Mental Health, Education, and Juvenile Justice: The Role of Mental Health Providers in Reducing the School-to-Prison Pipeline

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) describes the corridor between the education system and the justice system which is increasingly filled with children and youth who have mental health challenges. Approximately 22% of children (under 18 years old) in the general U.S. population have psychiatric disorders, as compared to approximately 70% of justice-involved children (Cocozza & Shufelt, 2006; Teplin et al., 2002). This article uses the differential behavior hypothesis and the differential selection/processing hypothesis to critically examine the intersection of the mental health, education, and juvenile justice systems and the overrepresentation of mental illness for justice-involved youth in the United States. Early identification, assessment, barriers to care and health disparities, school discipline, and the criminalization of children and youth with mental illness are explored with global implications. Recommendations and promising practices are offered including: improved data and service provider collaborations, community-based services and systems of care, diversion and decarceration, juvenile mental health courts, and juvenile crisis intervention teams.