Salud! Addressing Latino Health Challenges
July 29-31, 2002

The University of Georgia
College of Family and Consumer Sciences
Department of Foods and Nutrition
In partnership with
DrTango, Inc. and the Latin American Association

Wednesday, July 31st, 2002
9:30-10:30 a.m.

Session: "Mental Health Issues for Latino Youth in the Juvenile Justice System"

Speaker: Orlando L. Martinez, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Juvenile & Antonio Fernandez, Managing Director, Georgia Behavioral HealthCare

o 50-70% incarcerated youth have identifiable mental problems
o Latino youth don't receive mental help because of the language barriers
o 5% Latino in Georgia population (2000)
o 31% Latino Population is under 18 years of age
o Differences in Culture and language (similar to North and South)
o 63% Mexican
o 8% Puerto Rican
o 3% Cuban
o 26% others

o Georgia at risk population age 10-16 (law exist in Georgia - no bottom line age - pushing legislation)
o 2001 24,147 (>800,000)
o 2002 25,678 (>800,000)

o Anticipating increase diversity in system- increasing number of AA and Hispanics
o May 1, 2001 - May 31, 2002 (in youth develop center
o 112 (1.4%) Hispanic
o 7458 (98.6%) Non-Hispanic
o Average Age= 15.11 (Hispanic) {15.21 (N-Hisp)}

· DAI (Detention Assessment Instrument) determines future risk re-offense
o Average Score = 11.92 (Hisp)
o Anything less than 12 and 11 are not at increases risk

· Mental Health Alerts (Jan 1, 2001 - May 31, 2002)
o Hispanic 17%

o Non-Hispanic 26.3%
o Significant difference n not getting early intervention for Hispanics

· Do not Identify Hispanics and Latinos very well
o Coding:
112 46% identified as Hispanics
130 54% as non-Hispanic, but actually are

· Are Latinos over-represented? At risk population in GA 2001-2001, N= 846,922
o GA Population: 3.0%
o GA YDC: 3.2%

· AA are highly over-represented in juvenile system- sees same trend in Hispanics and Latinos.
· Conclusion
o Need cultural competence
o Need to know differences between culture and race
o Train staff (mental Health)

· Hernandez starts here

o Building blocks for youth
o National findings:
o Latino and Latino youth over-represented in U.S justice system and receive harsher treatment than white youth, even when charged with the same type of cases.
o Current means for collecting and accessing data are inadequate
o System fails to separate ethnicity from race
o Fails to provide bilingual services
o Fails to ensure cultural competent of staff working with youth
o Consideration of the immigration status (example: Permanent separation from families, etc.)
o Anti-gang laws result in harsh and unfair consequences for youth.

o Arrest of Latino/a youth
o Mostly non-violent offenses
o Felony >1800

o In L.A. County
o 1.9 times as likely as white youth to be arrested for violent offenses
o Latino youth were over represented in 39 states in 2002 ( 2.0 or more in 22 states / 3.0 or more in 8 states)
o Not in Georgia yet

o Youth in Adult facilities compared to JJ system:
o 8 times as likely to commit suicide
o 5 times as likely to be sexually assaulted
o 2 times as likely to be assaulted by staff
o 50% more likely to be attacked with a weapon

o Tends to be an intolerance when dealing with Latino/a youth
o Key findings general DJJ committed population

o Family support (61% yes/ 39% No)
o None of the Latino/a had no family support
o 100% yes, very strong
o 70% had difficulty with English language
o need proper discourse
o Prior Juvenile justice involvement 84% yes/ 39% No
o Gang involvement 13% yes/ 34% No
o Drug and alcohol abuse 66% yes/ 34% No
o Psychotropic Medications 43% yes / %7% no
o Mental Health and Substance Abuse 45% yes/ 55% No
o Offenses ( 31% type 1 offenses and 69% type 2 offenses
o for Hispanics very small percent had prior convictions
o 9/10 Hispanic kids admitted to gang involvement
o teach communication skills to Latino/a kids because from different gangs
o did not let letters in because decrease in Spanish staff and could not tell if the letters were safe

o Reliable data on the youth's history of drug and alcohol abuse
o Lower in Latino/a youth per national stats
o How do you identify mental problems if they can not speak the language

o Georgia preliminary findings:
o Significance present in Georgia JJS
o Historically accounted for Hispanics and Latinos youth as a separate ethnic category
o do not provide bilingual
o do not provide cultural competence
o increase rates of gang
o increase rates of family support
o immigration problems
o limited data on incident/ previous of mental health
o limits programs for community based interventions

o Do not recruit well in Hispanic and Latino community