The Maine Department of Corrections continues to struggle to open smaller-scale alternatives to the state's youth detention facility in South Portland several years after beginning the process of exploring options.
On average, 28 young people were held at the Long Creek Youth Development Center each day last year. That's roughly half the average daily population in the two years before the COVID pandemic, which Department of Corrections officials officials told lawmakers on Wednesday is bucking the trend seen in many other states.
But Associate Commissioner Christine Thibeault, who heads the department's juvenile services division, told members of the Legislature's Criminal Justice & Public Safety Committee that it's been a challenge to open alternative facilities elsewhere around the state that are smaller than Long Creek but still secure.
"It's easy to imagine that you could create a program in a community for some of the highest acute, behaviorally challenged adolescents," Thibeault said. "But it is not easy to effectuate. Whether you talk about staffing it with DOC staff or partnering with a community provider, this is a challenging population to work with."
The department has been under pressure for years from lawmakers and activists to close Long Creek, which has the capacity to accommodate more than 150 residents. Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill in 2021 that would have required the department to shutter Long Creek within two years. But the department has working since 2021 to create "secure alternatives" to Long Creek.
Thibeault said the department spent $1.3 million on a pilot project called Unity Place in Auburn. But the residential treatment contractor hired to run the facility, Day One, struggled to find staff. And the department discontinued the pilot program and closed facility closed after it served just eight young men in one year.
The Department of Corrections also opened a small facility adjacent to Long Creek for people who identify as female. But it also closed after less than a year, again because of insufficient staffing at Long Creek.
As of December 1, there were 30 vacancies among the roughly 70 "juvenile program workers" at Long Creek whose positions are similar to correctional officers but with a greater focus on treatment and rehabilitation. Thibeault and commissioner Randy Liberty said the department is working hard to recruit and retain additional people but the schedule — 12-hour shifts that frequently stretch 16 hours because of forced overtime — makes filling positions difficult.
"These positions are very challenging," Liberty said. "The environment that the officers work in can be very, very difficult."
