Bill to close Long Creek making its way through Maine Legislature
LD 1668 would close Long Creek Youth Development Center and reallocate the funds to housing and mental health resources Author: Jackie Mundry (NEWS CENTER Maine) Published: 4:28 PM EDT May 11, 2021 Updated: 5:40 AM EDT May 12, 2021
AUGUSTA, Maine For the past few years, Maine Youth Justice has been working to get Long Creek Youth Development Center closed. Now, a bill is making its way through the Maine Legislature and some state lawmakers say now is the time to close the facility for good. I think, you know, we could be doing so much better, let s make their lives, let s make it easier to stay out of these situations in the first place, Rep. Grayson Lookner (D-Portland) said.
Lawmakers consider setting a closure date for youth prison
Advocates spoke in favor of legislation calling for the closure of the Long Creek Youth Development Center.
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Advocates are asking lawmakers to commit to closing Maine’s only youth prison within two years, a step that is still opposed by the state Department of Corrections.
Lawmakers are considering a resolution that would direct the department to make a plan for shutting down Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland by June 30, 2023. That plan would include redirecting the prison’s $18 million budget to community services outside the Department of Corrections and turning the building itself into a community center for youth. If passed, the resolution would not be binding like a law would be, but it could set the state on a course that youth activists have demanded for years.
Maine Public File
Some lawmakers, advocates and former residents of the Long Creek Youth Development Center are urging members of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee to support legislation that would close the facility within the next two years.
Long Creek, the state’s youth correctional facility, has a budget of over $18 million a year to house about 28 individuals. That works out to about $700,000 a year per resident.
Democratic state Rep. Grayson Lookner of Portland, who sponsored the bill, says there are better ways to use that money to treat young offenders.
“That amount of spending has not mitigated or reduced the fact that Long Creek has been a place of violence and trauma for young people too long,” he says.
Commentary: Time to pass L.D. 1668 and close Long Creek
It would be a better use of public dollars to invest them in a continuum of community-based care to replace incarceration for Maine’s young people.
By Grayson Lookner and Abdulkadir AliSpecial to the Press Herald
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Almost a year ago, thousands of Mainers took to the streets to demand state and local leaders shift resources from prisons and policing into our communities. One of the demands included closing Long Creek Youth Development Center, the last youth prison in Maine. Since then, Maine has continued to pour millions of dollars into a failed prison and policing system that harms our most marginalized community members.
Maine Voices: No winners when children are incarcerated
Maine needs to divert young people from the criminal justice system and shorten sentences for those who are involved.
By Eliza May BurwellSpecial to the Press Herald
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The first time I went to Long Creek Youth Development Center was for a volunteer training in 2019 as part of my job at a local social services agency. My biggest takeaway from the training was that every volunteer and staff member who went inside the facility needed to wear a “man-down button” at all times. If the button was pressed, a group of specially trained juvenile corrections officers would immediately respond at a sprint in order to intervene in a crisis.