skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Youth First Campaign Calls for Closing Long Creek Youth Center

play audio
Play

Monday, March 14, 2016   

PORTLAND, Maine - The time has come to close the Long Creek Youth Development Center, according to a new national campaign called Youth First.

The campaign identified 80 old and large prisons it says not only are expensive to run but poor choices for handling youth. Long Creek was built in 1853 and designed to hold 163 young offenders. Even though the facility was renovated in 2002, said Liz Ryan, president and chief executive of Youth First, she'd like to see a different approach.

"A much more effective community-based alternative that has wraparound services, things like counseling, job training, other kinds of supports that that young person might need," she said. "They're going to experience much better outcomes and much lower recidivism rates."

Ryan said there also is a significant racial disparity, because African-American youths make up only 4 percent of Maine's population but represent 18 percent of incarcerated youths. Ryan said Maine does deserve credit for closing the state's other youth prison, Mountain View, last summer.

Youth First also released a survey that showed that 77 percent of Americans favor changing the focus of the juvenile-justice system from incarceration to rehabilitation. She said Maine's decision to set up a Youth Task Force has helped guide the state's efforts.

"That task force came up with solid recommendations, and I know the state has been undertaking efforts to implement a number of those," she said. "This past year, there have been efforts to stop shackling children in the juvenile system. So, Maine appears to be the kind of state that wants to embrace the kind of reforms that this public-opinion polling is showing the public supports."

Nationwide, she said, states are spending more than $100,000 a year to hold each young offender in these outdated facilities. She said she hopes that kind of red ink will get the attention of lawmakers in Maine.

The Youth First report is online at youthfirstinitiative.org.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …


Organizations fighting wage theft said it harms affected workers and surrounding communities because the money withheld is not being circulated through the local economy. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

Social Issues

play sound

A 2023 study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center concluded the number of Nebraskans with a mental health or substance abuse disorder has pr…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021