With Proper Care, Teens Can Be Saved from Life of Crime, Doctor Says

Child psychiatrist Jane Tanaka doesn’t think a teen in Juvenile Hall is doomed to jail or prison as an adult.

 “I have seen parents and kids use this to turn things around,” said Dr. Tanaka, who has treated children and adults in Ramona and elsewhere in San Diego County for 18 years.

“But it takes a lot of work—getting and keeping a kid in recovery from drugs/alcohol, family, group and individual therapy, sometimes medications to target impulse control and aggression, addressing learning difficulties, positive mentoring and job training.”    

What are the warning signs of a child on the cliff of criminality?

Tanaka says signs and risk factors include:

• A history of heavy exposure to alcohol in the womb (causing poor impulse control).
• Early neglect or abuse, lack of bonding to a parent figure.
• Lack of empathy for others.
• Poor impulse control.
• Blaming others for one’s own mistakes.
• Lack of remorse after hurting others.
• Feeling as though one is above the law or an exception to the rules/consequences.

She said a child may have undiagnosed or untreated learning disabilities/ADHD, early onset of drug or alcohol abuse or a biological  family history of antisocial, borderline traits or poor impulse control.

“Juvenile Hall is one place kids with these risk factors can end up, so early identification by parents, teachers, pediatricians, therapists and mental health professionals is essential,” Tanaka said via email.

“Funding for mental health benefits for kids can be hard to access but essential. Academic accommodations for kids with learning disabilities, attention and impulse control issues and other psychiatric conditions may be costly, but a wise investment to prevent expenditure down the road in the juvenile and adult justice systems.”

Tanaka is known as “Dr. T.” to the families she helps, and her specialty has become re-evaluation and treatment of more “difficult” and complex patients who have already seen other psychiatrists and need more personalized care.

She works out of her eight-acre hillside property near Dos Picos Park Road, which is strewn with boulders, chaparral, flowers and inspirational artistic designs.

In this therapeutic country setting, visitors are reminded to watch out for bees and not go off the beaten path, where it’s possible to encounter a rattlesnake.

The setting creates a private location for patients.

Tanaka trained as an outpatient psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital and the San Diego County Mental Health Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital.

In another story, Ramona Patch takes a look at a new book on the residents of Juvenile Hall, called Born Not Raised by San Diego photojournalist and urban anthropologist Susan Madden Lankford.

According to the book, many young people in detention may enter adult prisons later in life, but some children’s lives can be turned around if they have “one decent person” in their lives, namely an interested relative or person in the community.

Born Not Raised is part of a trilogy plus a companion documentary looking at people incarcerated or living on the streets in San Diego.

Lankford promotes remediation, such as literacy and education in social skills and addiction recovery as a way to help people heal, rather than putting them back on the streets unassisted, where they will potentially re-offend.