MMHI: Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center
Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center (MJTC) is a secure mental health treatment facility.
A focus on hope, health, and healing
Most youth correctional institutions use a sanctions-based approach. Youth dealing with trauma typically don't respond well in such an environment.
The premise of the MJTC approach is that treatment should do more than just provide youth with challenging behaviors and serious mental health issues with needed skills. It should also address the youth's resistance and opposition to conventional behaviors and lifestyles. The MJTC approach uses intensive therapy to decompress the cycle in which punishment for bad behavior inspires more bad behavior, which is in turn punished. Patients receive care, encouragement, treatment, and education, which with the gradual development of trust, brings about more acceptable choices and personal esteem and autonomy. Over time, they act out less frequently and become more available for participation in further rehabilitative services. These services include individual and group activities and classes focused on assisting patients with accepting responsibility for their actions, teaching social and problem-solving skills, resolving mental health issues, and building healthy relationships. The goal is to help patients successfully reintegrate into their communities.
Several research studies show young people treated at MJTC committed significantly fewer crimes after being released when compared to similar youth who did not have access to MJTC.
Serving boys and girls
MJTC opened in 1995 with a focus on serving boys. The program became available to girls in 2025, following a three-year project to expand the MJTC campus and renovate the original facility. When fully staffed, the larger building can house 94 patients: 74 boys and 20 girls. Patients are placed on one of nine units based on their security needs and responsiveness to treatment.
The boys and girls currently served at MJTC are transferred from the youth justice system—either Lincoln Hills School (boys) or Copper Lake School (girls) operated by the Department of Corrections or a county-run secure residential care center for children and youth.
Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center
301 Troy Drive
Madison, WI 53704