Young people locked up in juvenile prisons have an enormous need for mental healthcare, one which juvenile prisons have consistently found themselves unable to meet. As a result, many incarcerated young people end up being denied the care they deserve. Yet for years, courts have implemented a confused, haphazard doctrine to evaluate youth right to mental healthcare claims-likely because the quasi-criminal nature of the system frustrates any more straightforward application. the constitutional tests that courts apply vary widely between jurisdictions, with some courts deriving tests from the Fourteenth Amendment, others from the Eighth, and many fashioning a standard somewhere in between. this has not only led to unpredictability between cases, but also led courts to express a troubling indifference to the unique needs and vulnerabilities of mentally ill youth.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2752619