Are They Warehousing Children with Mental Illnesses?
July 7, 2004 Chairwoman Collins, Senator Lieberman, and members of the Governmental Affairs Committee, I am Carol Carothers, the Executive Director of NAMI Maine, the Maine state chapter of NAMI — the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. I am also the proud recipient of a 2004 Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Award for my work to improve conditions for Maine’s inmates living with mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders. First, I would like to thank you for providing me with this opportunity to testify today about an issue that is of great concern to me and families across the state of Maine – the warehousing of children with mental illnesses in youth detention facilities. I have reviewed the report released today titled The Incarceration of Mentally Ill Youth Waiting for Community Mental Health Services in the United States — and can share with you first hand from my experience working in jails and prisons and contacts with youth living with mental i
