Maine’s corrections commissioner told lawmakers Friday that he will move up the timeline to find smaller facilities to house youth accused and convicted of crimes as the state looks for alternatives to the troubled Long Creek Youth Development Center.
Randall Liberty, commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections, said he will report to lawmakers by mid-November on options for three smaller facilities across the state. A law passed earlier this year gave him a February deadline.
Liberty told the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee that the long-term goal – three to six years – is to “eliminate the need for Long Creek.” However, he added that he doesn’t want to act too quickly and create a situation similar to what happened when the state closed the Augusta Mental Health Institute in 2004.
The AMHI closure has widely been criticized because there were not enough community-based mental health services for those in need.
“If we do this quickly we’re going to do harm to the residents in our care,” he said.
The future of Long Creek has been a controversial topic in recent months, with former residents calling for its closure and Gov. Janet Mills vetoing a bill that would have shuttered the facility. Lawmakers instead passed a bill to require Liberty to identify three smaller, regional facilities to serve some, if not all, of the youth accused and convicted of crimes.
Then this summer, details of six incidents at the facility called into question staffing and the use of restraints. Just last week, the department announced that Long Creek Superintendent Caroline Raymond had resigned as did Associate Commissioner of Juvenile Services Colin O’Neill.
Liberty shared details about the six incidents that are being investigated by the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office and could result in criminal charges for Long Creek staff. Liberty said the residents caused $100,000 in damage.
“The youth were not happy with a case worker,” he said. “Three of them decided to flip a table over, break a leg off the table and use it as a weapon.”
Staff convinced one of the residents to stop, but the other two “began to destroy the unit.”
“I’m talking about smashing glass, breaking windows, destroying offices, destroying computers,” he said, noting that in one incident 34 windows were broken.
Liberty said Long Creek staff used a chemical irritant similar to mace during one incident and put residents in prone positions twice.
But a letter from Disability Rights Maine outlined six times youth were restrained, including one who was in the prone position for 28 minutes and another in which staff “used a knee to the upper back/neck of the youth, forcing the youth’s head to the ground with the shin.”
Atlee Reilly, an attorney for the group, told the committee he stands by the accuracy of the letter in which he described “dangerous restraint practices” employed by Long Creek staff during incidents on Aug. 2 and Aug. 30.
When asked about alternatives, Reilly said the state needs to develop community-based services to keep them out of detention facilities.
“We could move a vast majority of youth down a scale,” Reilly said. “The vast majority of youth could be served in less restrictive settings than Long Creek.”
Liberty said of the 38 current residents, 20 are waiting for their cases to be adjudicated. Of those already sentenced, five are there for aggravated elevated assault, four for robbery, two for arson, two on weapons charges, one on domestic violence assault and one for gross sexual assault.
Moving forward, Liberty said he and his staff are examining whether staff at Long Creek need more training and whether there’s enough programming and treatment for those at Long Creek. He said in some of the recent incidents, the youth were bored.
He also noted that COVID-19 restrictions on volunteers and visitors and the need to quarantine staff when they were exposed to the virus, have added another complicating layer to the facility.
“We’re committed to reducing the reliance on incarceration of our youth,” he said.
