AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine lawmakers and proponents testified for a bill designed to reduce the number of children held in confinement at the state’s only secure facility for juveniles.
No one testified against the legislation to reduce the capacity and population of the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland on Wednesday, The Portland Press Herald reported. Many said the bill does not go far enough to close the facility or is not moving quick enough and took a neutral position.
Joseph Jackson, the director of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition said there needs to be immediate improvements for the betterment of incarcerated youths.
The bill proposes reducing the facilities population by a quarter every two years until its capacity is 30 beds. Currently, the capacity is 163 residents, however, the facility holds 50 to 60 juveniles daily.
“Incarcerating children is traumatic,” District Attorney for District 6 Natasha Irving said. “And trauma causes criminogenic behavior and if we continue to do this to children, we will continue to have adults at the Maine State Prison.”
The Herald reports that Irving is one of those who said the $3.5 million funding bill does not go far enough.
“My hope is that we take this big first step” Irving said. “But my other really big hope is we start doing the real work, which is putting our money where our mouth is and investing in children. These are children who are survivors of trauma, of abuse, and we care about those children, we all do, so we have to start coming through for them.”
The Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee will propose changes and amendments next week.
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