AUGUSTA, Maine - The task force looking at Maine juvenile justice is finding signs the whole system is upside down.

Jill Ward, project manager of the Maine Center for Juvenile Policy & Law at the University of Maine School of Law, is one of the task force co-chairs. She says testimony they've heard shows that, for lack of good alternatives, the state is locking up too many less serious young offenders in Long Creek - the state's juvenile prison - and keeping them too long.

Ward says research shows locking up any young people for longer than six months does more harm than good. But Maine is keeping them longer than sixteen months.

"Their length of stays were over 500 days, on average," says Ward. "More than six months, you have diminishing returns as far as public safety goes and recidivism goes. More than six months, you're creating more problems. You're not getting the kind of outcomes you want."

The American Civil Liberties Union has been calling for Long Creek to be closed since a transgender youth committed suicide there three years ago. Others counter that the prison provides the kind of restrictive setting needed for dangerous juvenile offenders.

The Juvenile Justice System Assessment & Reinvestment Task Force met in mid-December and expects to issue a report in February.

Ward says one central problem is that judges and families lack good alternatives - sentences that could keep juveniles in the homes and communities that encourage good behavior. Ward says incarceration often seems like the only option.

"Because Long Creek is the only place that can't say no when kids need some kind of help," says Ward. "Mental-health services, substance-use treatment services, housing - a whole array of areas that there aren't sufficient alternatives."

Ward says a sign that the system is upside down is that the juveniles at more risk of re-offending are getting out before their generally less dangerous peers. Ward says that makes no sense from a public-safety standpoint, but it's exactly what's happening on average.

"Those kids were actually getting out of Long Creek sooner and the young people who were staying longer were actually assessed at a much lower risk," says Ward.


get more stories like this via email

A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of young people with disabilities serving time in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The nonprofit legal advocacy group Equip for Equality suggested state legislation passed in 2006 has largely been ignored. It mandates young people ages 18-22 who are incarcerated take classes to earn a high school diploma.

Olga Pribyl, vice president of the special education clinic at Equip for Equality, said anyone in the age group who was, or currently is, eligible for special education services is affected.

"There's a number of individuals who entered the Illinois Department of Corrections who are within this age range, and who had previously been receiving special education services at their prior educational institution," Pribyl explained. "But once they entered The Department of Corrections, they didn't receive any education."

Pribyl described four years of negotiations on the issue as unsuccessful, which led to the lawsuit being filed against the Illinois Departments of Corrections and Juvenile Justice, and the Illinois State Board of Education.

The group worries young people with disabilities are not getting essential support or accommodation for their schooling while they are incarcerated. It said the consequences are far-reaching in terms of future schooling, vocational training and employment opportunities upon their release.

Pribyl argued getting a diploma can turn young lives around.

"When they exit the system, they're ready to be employed and can be participating members of the community and not go back into the system," Pribyl emphasized. "Statistics show that without an education, the rate of recidivism is a lot higher for these individuals."

Youth in custody can receive GED preparation. Pribyl added her group would like to see them receive high school credit-bearing courses instead. The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission listed 446 juveniles in the state's 16 detention facilities as of this spring.

The number of youth held in juvenile justice facilities in California and across the U.S. dropped 75% between 2000 and 2022 - according to a new policy brief from the Sentencing Project.

Researchers say it reflects big declines in youth offending and arrests - and lower rates of incarceration during the pandemic.

Josh Rovner, director of youth justice with the Sentencing Project, said this contradicts frequent assertions by politicians and commentators that youth crime is out of control.

"It's surprising to many people in the country that believe that things are always getting worse," said Rovner, "that believe that this generation of kids is worse than any generation that came before it, when the evidence doesn't back that up at all."

California has been on the forefront of juvenile justice reform.

The state closed the last of its youth prisons last year, moving to a county-based model to keep children closer to family and community-based programs.

The state also banned almost all prosecution of children under age 12, and ended the transfer of 14- and 15-year-olds to adult court.

Rovner said youth are much less likely to re-offend when they are spared incarceration - and instead enter programs that emphasize mentoring, family therapy, and restorative justice.

"Some people argued drops in incarceration would only lead to increases in offending," said Rovner. "The opposite happened. In fact, by locking up fewer kids, offending continued to drop. So successes can build upon successes, but there is still so much work to do."

State data show that the number of youth in California juvenile facilities stood at almost 2,800 in 2023 - a dramatic drop from just over 11,000 in 2002.




get more stories like this via email

West Virginia state agencies have failed to collect data on incarcerated youth, according to a new lawsuit filed by the West Virginia NAACP in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County.

Every year, thousands of children appear before a judge and many become entangled in the state's juvenile justice system.

Aleshadye Getachew, senior counsel for Democracy Forward, explained the state passed a law in 2015, mandating agencies to collect data about juvenile justice outcomes to aid policymakers, but she said agencies haven't delivered.

"This data really should have been collected in 2015 when this law was first passed, but it hasn't," Getachew pointed out. "We sent out FOIA requests on behalf of the West Virginia NAACP and what we received was pretty limited."

She added the lack of data is leaving advocates in the dark on whether the state has made progress addressing a crisis of incarcerated youth, particularly those involved in truancy diversion programs and school-related incidents.

According to the state Department of Education, more than 169,000 incidents on school property occurred during the 2022 academic year, with more than 51,000 students referred for discipline.

Loretta Young, president of the West Virginia NAACP, said data is critical for examining racial disparities among students facing harsh penalties, such as suspensions or expulsions, or being referred to law enforcement for minor incidents.

"Because the data collection will lead us to what the problem is, how we possibly can develop community resources along with the school resources, so that children are not going from the school to the pipeline of prison," Young urged.

According to federal data, law enforcement accounted for 82% of all delinquency cases referred to juvenile court in 2019.


get more stories like this via email