Disentangling the risk a young offender poses to the community from his or her need for mental health treatment is one of the biggest challenges facing juvenile justice systems. Without good treatment alternatives, juvenile and family court judges often opt for incarceration even when they know treatment is what a youngster needs. But even when they have a set of proven community-based treatment alternatives, some jurisdictions hesitate to use them and accurate estimates of the scope of the problem are difficult to obtain. Solomon Moore's August 10th NY Times article and this blog explore some of these issues.