The advocates calling to close Maine’s youth prison and the people who run it agree on something: Fewer kids behind bars is better.
It’s an idea that over the past decades shuttered another youth prison and saw a sharp reduction of inmates at the Long Creek Youth Development Center. More recently, as the South Portland facility has struggled with a staffing crisisand a large population of teens with deep mental illness, this idea has led criminal justice reform groups to call for it to be shut down.
The young people at Long Creek “don’t belong in a prison,” said Alison Beyea, the executive director of the ACLU of Maine. “They would be far better served in community-based programs that get them the help they need. Other states are closing their youth prisons in favor of community-based treatment, and we can, too.”
Many of those who want the facility closed, like Beyea, point to the so-called Missouri model as the one Maine should pursue, saying the state’s single traditional prison for young offenders should be replaced by a network of localized homes for troubled youths focused more on education and rehabilitation.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “Closing Maine’s embattled youth prison ‘not so simple’,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Jake Bleiberg, please follow this link to the BDN online.
