The Korea Times
Faced with a surging mental health crisis and a chronic shortage of specialized doctors, the Ministry of Justice is launching its first telemedicine program within the nation’s juvenile reformatories. The pilot program, which officially began this month at the Anyang and Daejeon juvenile centers, marks a significant shift in how the state manages the medical needs of its most vulnerable detainees. The initiative arrives as the proportion of youth inmates diagnosed with mental illnesses has climbed dramatically, rising from roughly 33 percent in 2021 to nearly 50 percent last year. For decades, providing consistent psychiatric care in these facilities has been hampered by a lack of resident specialists. Under the new system, the ministry established a dedicated video link between the centers and Eumseong Somang Hospital, a facility in North Chungcheong Province specializing in mental health. This real-time interface allows for diagnosis and the immediate issuance of prescriptions, bypassing the logistical hurdles of transporting the minors. "In the past, it would take two to three hour
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