“Voices From Juvenile Detention: Kids Behind Bars” It sounds harmless: “pre-trial detention.” But the reality is far different. In a squat block building in Laredo, Texas—and in similar places around the nation—children await trial or placement in concrete cells while the underlying issues that led to their behavior fester. Some are addicts who need treatment; others are kids battling mental illnesses. Many are angry and have been virtually abandoned by absentee or irresponsible parents. Some spend a few days, others months, but despite the efforts of a small corps of dedicated professionals, few actually receive treatment for the issues that brought them to Juvenile. /// 15-year-old Gabriel, restrained while he detoxes in a cell at Webb County Juvenile Detention. “How I got here? I don’t remember, sir.” Gabriel, 15, took 10 rRohypnol pills (a potent tranquilizer) and boarded the bus to school. Stoked by the drugs, an argument with another kid turned ugly. A teacher who intervened says Gabriel threatened him. When he arrived in Juvenile–his fifth time there–officers found more pills in his pocket. He is charged with “possession of a controlled substance in a correctional facility”–a felony. And Gabriel isn’t the only child brought to Juvenile in a narcohaze. Far from it, according to Jesse Hernandez, head of a local drug counseling program: “Virtually everyone in the juvenile detention system is abusing drugs or is dependent. At one point, Doctor’s Hospital had opened up the mental health unit and we had an adolescent detox here. In 2002 we had to give it up because it’s very cost-prohibitive to run a program like that. Unfortunately, a lot of kids are now having to be detoxed in the detention center. . . . “You never want to get in a situation where you’re having to restrain people who are under the influence. It’s dangerous.