Unjust Criminalization of Children with Mental Illness

What happens to kids who are abused or neglected?They end up with mental illnesses, dropping out of school, sometimes in foster home placement, not getting the psychiatric treatment they need, and ending up in prison. Indeed a new study reveals that over half of the inmates in U.S. prisons have a mental illness with roots in childhood. Today's guests are proof! They urge society to wake up and start helping these kids when warning signs appear in elementary school. Kristina Kopic is an Advocacy Content Specialist at the Ruderman Family Foundation, who conducted this study. Tara Nuevelle shares her personal story, which illustrates this trajectory. She grew up in a severely abusive home. Her social worker, foster parents and many others were blind to her depression, anxiety and PTSD. She went on to become a victim of domestic violence, and ended up in prison. Now she's the Founder and CEO of Who Speaks For Me? an organization which educates the justice system about trauma.