The author of a U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention report on suicides in juvenile facilities says that, despite the major findings it produced, the agency sat on the report for five years, Youth Today reports. The National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA) received about $75,000 to produce the report, which author Lindsay Hayes says he completed in 2004. OJJDP published the study just this week. It examined 110 suicides between 1995 and 1999.
Among findings: More than one state agency was unaware of suicides at private juvenile facilities with which it held a contract. More than half of suicides at juvenile detention centers occurred within six days of a juvenile’s commitment to the facility, and only 35 percent in detention centers had been provided a mental health assessment before the suicide. “I just don’t know why they put the kibosh on it,” Hayes said.