JUVENILE JUSTICE

Mental health is the missing variable in juvenile justice.

Youth enter the justice system in crisis, wait weeks for care, and discharge into nothing. Backpack delivers mental healthcare with the speed, clinical depth, and continuity this population has never had – closing the loop from admission to reintegration.

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See the program

5 states

of scalable infrastructure

250+ languages

supported

Medicaid-first

by design

THE PROBLEM

A system that ignores the mental health crisis.

Untreated trauma and mental illness drive recidivism, family instability, and lifetime system involvement – yet most youth move through detention without ever being treated.

of youth in the justice system have a diagnosable mental health condition.

receive any mental health treatment while incarcerated.

3×

more likely to reoffend when mental health needs go unaddressed.
more likely to reoffend when mental health needs go unaddressed.

OUR SOLUTION

Without intervention, 70% of youth exit the justice system without a care plan – discharged into the same conditions that brought them in.

OUR SOLUTION

Backpack's Juvenile Justice Program.

A clinically-led, tech-enabled model delivering behavioral health services directly inside juvenile facilities, courts, and community reentry settings.

In-Facility Telehealth

Licensed therapists and psychiatrists via secure video inside detention centers and group homes.

Reentry Care Plans

Every youth exits with a documented care transition plan, warm handoff, and 90-day community follow-up.

Family Integration

Caregiver engagement built into treatment. Families receive psychoeducation and their own care access.

Data-Driven Compliance

Real-time clinical documentation meets court, Medicaid, and state reporting requirements out of the box.

2.1M+

youth move through the juvenile justice system every year. Backpack meets them where they already are — no new infrastructure required.

Continuity of care

Care can't stop the day a young person leaves detention.

Continuity is one of the biggest gaps in juvenile justice — it'swhat keeps progress from being lost. Too many youth walk outthe door and start over from zero.

Many youth leave detention with

No follow-up appointment

No referral pathway

No ongoing therapy relationship

No medication management plan

Before release, Backpack can

Establish ongoing therapy

Schedule follow-up psychiatry visits

Coordinate with caregivers & probation

Maintain treatment relationships after discharge

The goal

Keep progress moving forward — not restart treatment from zero. Care that continues into
their adult life.

WHY COMMUNITIES PARTNER WITH BACKPACK

Built for access. Designed for the underserved.

Medicaid-first model

Billing infrastructure built around Medicaid from day one. No revenue leakage, no reimbursement guesswork.

Tech + clinical integration

A proprietary care coordination platform
connects intake, treatment, documentation, and discharge in one workflow.

Evidence-based protocols

Trauma-focused CBT, DBT, and motivational interviewing delivered by clinicians trained in youth justice populations.

Family-centered design

We treat the family unit, not just the youth – reducing recidivism and improving long-term outcomes.

Multi-state infrastructure

Multi-state licensure with active provider networks – expansion-ready across major junenile justice markets.

Fast access to care

Patients can begin care in as few as 3 days – not the weeks or months families are used to navigating.

Facility services

Faster care means safer facilities.

When care is delayed, behavioral issues become safety issues. Youth waiting weeks for psychiatric medication management drive the incidents that strain every facility.

When youth wait weeks for care

Self-harm behaviors

Aggression toward staff

Property destruction

Increased isolation placements

Higher staffing requirements

"When care is delayed, behavioral issues become safety issues."

Time to medication management

Today's facility wait

3–4 wks

Current standard

With
Backpack

3 days

Average time to care

95%

of Backpack patients begin care within days, not weeks— helping reduce behavioral escalation, improveemotional regulation, and lower staff burden.

OUTCOMES

We serve a hard-to-reach population. When we reach them, they stay.

The result: lower anxiety and depression, higher engagement, and reducedoverall healthcare costs for the youth others can't reach.

begin care withint days of referral – no waitlist model.

Speed to care

return for a second visit – high engagement and retention.

Continuity

of patients with crisis-level anxiety (GAD-7 ≥ 15) see improvement.

ANXIETY

of patients with crisis-level depression (PHQ-9 > 20) see improvement.

DEPRESSION

4.82

provider satisfaction score across the clinician network.

PROVIDER RATING

patient NPS – versus the 58 healthcare industry standard.

PATIENT NPS

Who we partner with

At the intersection of healthcare, education, and justice.

Backpack is positioned across the systems that touch every justice- involved youth — through established payer and system relationships built for scale.

Payor partners

State Medicaid managed careplans

CHIP program administrators

Juvenile justice-specific MCOs

Value-based care innovators

Facility partners

State-operated detention centers

Private residential facilities

Diversion and group home programs

Re-entry transitional housing

System partners

Juvenile courts & DA's offices

Public school districts

Community mental health centers

Child welfare agencies

Highlighted indicates a current partner relationship.

Let's get started

Better access.
Better outcomes.
Better continuity.

Every youth in the justice system deserves more than a case number. Let's help juvenile justice systems connect youth to care when it matters most and build stronger behavioral health systems together.

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At a glance

Time to first appointment

3 days

Initial outreach after referral

24 hrs

States served

Languages supported

250+

Ages

4 and up