Report - Mental Health Among Incarcerated Sexual & Gender Minority Youth

TW: suicide, suicidal ideation

LGBTQ youth, particularly LGBTQ youth of color, face discrimination and stigma that lead to criminalization and increased interactions with law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Family rejection, family instability, and poverty may result in homelessness or time spent in the child welfare system, where LGBTQ youth frequently face stigma and discrimination. Additionally, LGBTQ students often lack support or are over-policed at school, pushing them out of school and onto the streets. Once on the streets, status offenses, drug laws, and laws criminalizing sex work—as well as policing strategies and discrimination by law enforcement—often target LGBTQ youth.

A 2017 study published in Pediatrics found that youth who reported identifying as LGB or having same-sex attractions were more likely to be stopped by police, to be expelled from school, or to be arrested and convicted as juveniles and adults. For some LGBTQ youth, especially LGBTQ youth of color and transgender and non-conforming youth, these factors play a large role in increasing their interactions with law enforcement and ultimately their overrepresentation in the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

In the juvenile and criminal justice systems, LGBTQ youth face bias in adjudication and mistreatment and abuse in confinement facilities. LGBTQ youth also lack supportive services when leaving the criminal and juvenile justice systems, often forcing them back into negative interactions with law enforcement. 

When LGBTQ youth are pushed into the juvenile justice system, not only are they disconnected from their communities and families, but they are frequently subjected to physical and emotional harassment and violence. What’s more, their experiences in the system do little to prepare them for a productive and healthy life as adults. Instead, too many LGBTQ youth, both as youth and as adults, find themselves in a cycle of poverty, homelessness, and incarceration. 

Using data from the Minnesota Student Survey, a statewide population survey of youth, researchers from UCLA, Vanderbilt, Brown, and Yale Universities examined the mental health experiences of LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ youth in juvenile correctional facilities and public schools. It appeared in Pediatrics in November 2022.

Main data points from the report:

• LGBTQ youth are disproportionally represented in juvenile correctional facilities; 29% of incarerated youth identify as LGBTQ+, compared to 20% in public schools.
• 54% of incarcerated LGBTQ youth report having faced four or more adverse childhood experiences; 6% of non-LGBTQ+ youth in public schools reported the same.
• 58% of incarcerated LGBTQ+ youth engaged in self-harm.
• 42% of incarcerated LGBTQ+ youth thought about suicide.
• 38% of incarcerated LGBTQ+ youth attempted suicide.

Ideally, the push to reduce the role of incarceration for juveniles in general would serve to interrupt this cycle for LGBTQ youth, and that is certainly a clear and stated long-term goal of juvenile justice advocates.

While working toward that goal, in the short term, given that nearly 40% of incarcerated girls in identify as LGB and 85-90% of incarcerated LGBTQ youth are youth of color, it is crucial that any effort to change the way youth in the United States engage with the juvenile justice system must consider the unique experiences of LGBTQ youth.