COVID Crisis Spurs Innovation in Maine’s Juvenile Justice System
By Lisa Margulies, Esq., John T. Gorman Structure Program Partner
Stakeholders throughout the state have actually worked to improve Maine’s juvenile justice system for several years. A specific area of focus has actually been decreasing the number of youth in Long Creek Youth Advancement Center due to growing acknowledgment and arrangement that lots of justice-involved youth do not posture a threat to public safety and, with proper shows and services, can and ought to remain in their neighborhoods. Over the last decade, the population of Long Creek has actually been lowered significantly and, in the months leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, partnership by a varied coalition of justice-system stakeholders set the phase for considerable policy reforms. In this analysis, we have a look at how the coronavirus pandemic sped up the application of evidence-based policies and stimulated new innovations to support youth involved with Maine’s juvenile justice system.
Background: Maine’s Efforts to Carry out Evidence-Based Methods Supporting Justice-Involved Youth
The Maine Department of Corrections (DOC), along with its partners and other system stakeholders, has worked over numerous years to decrease the population of Long Creek. This includes its recent partnership with a nationwide think-tank, the Vera Institute of Justice, on the End Ladies’ Imprisonment Initiative. This work has actually yielded measurable and substantial outcomes: from 2009 to 2019, the variety of youth detained awaiting court action or services decreased 67 percent, and, during that very same time, there was a 76 percent reduction in the number youth committed (sentenced) to the facility.
These efforts remain in line with years of research study on what works to promote success in the juvenile justice system and secure public security. Proof reveals that the vast bulk of youth age out of criminal habits, and that incarceration might really make matters worse by increasing the danger of recidivism among particular youth. Additionally, research has actually found that longer stays in juvenile centers do not produce much better outcomes.
As an option to protect placement, community-based assistances and services, like treatment and shows, might successfully address risk aspects for future system participation. This research has stimulated states throughout the country to pursue evidence-based modifications to their juvenile justice systems that buy community-based programming, highlight diversion at every point in the justice process, and restrict using secure confinement– all while securing public security. (In its 2018 report,, the John T. Gorman Foundation recommended the creation of an extensive continuum of care to support vulnerable young individuals, consisting of youth who are homeless and those included with the juvenile justice or foster care systems.)
Despite Maine’s hard work, there is broad contract that there is space for improvement. Maine, like many states, has struggled to develop a comprehensive continuum of care statewide to address the requirements of youth in the juvenile justice system, particularly those with intricate behavioral health requirements.
Missing such helpful, community-based services, youth may be put at Long Creek due to the fact that there is simply no place else for them to go. Undoubtedly, a 2017 research study by the Center for Kid’s Law and Policy (CCLP) discovered that, regardless of the dedication and high ability level of leadership and personnel at Long Creek, the facility housed a variety of youth with mental health problems yet was not created or equipped to fulfill these requirements. CCLP’s most recent analysis this year validated the frequency of behavioral health problems for youth at Long Creek, discovering that nearly 70 percent of youth devoted to the facility got behavioral health services from MaineCare in the year prior to their placement. Additionally, CCLP’s analysis exposed that a big proportion of cases leading to youth being sent to Long Creek are not for crimes or alleged criminal activities versus a person– 45 percent of detention and 42 percent of dedicated cases did not involve person offenses.
The goal of constructing a robust continuum of care has actually gotten renewed focus since May 2019 with the formation of the Maine Juvenile Justice System Evaluation & & Reinvestment Task Force, moneyed by the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group (JJAG). Co-chaired by Representative Michael Brennan, DOC Commissioner Randall Liberty, and Jill Ward from the Maine Center for Juvenile Policy and Law (MCJPAL) at the University of Maine School of Law, the group included agents from all 3 branches of federal government, along with community stakeholders and practitioners. With technical assistance from CCLP, the Job Force convened over ten months to speak with nationwide and regional experts in the juvenile justice system and engaged in discussion about Maine’s opportunities and difficulties. The process culminated with the release of a last report by CCLP and its partners, which examined information, policy, and practice to come to a series of suggestions for the state in the short and long term. The work of the Job Force worked as the basis for proposed legislation, introduced in the 2020 legislative session, to take actions to improve the state’s juvenile justice system.
Crisis Expedites Action
Obviously, the Legislature came to an abrupt halt due to the coronavirus pandemic. In spite of this setback, stakeholders continue to engage in meaningful efforts to enhance the juvenile justice system. In truth, the crisis catalyzed exceptional coordination and partnership amongst stakeholders to promote the well-being of justice-involved youth while concurrently securing public safety.
As the crisis was bearing down in March, DOC increase its efforts to safely launch youth from Long Creek while ensuring vital assistances to help them be successful in their neighborhoods, including the growth of the Youth Advocate Program (YAP), a nationwide company that assists provide community-based services for justice-involved youth. In addition, DOC acted promptly over a series of group calls with the Vera Institute, neighborhood service providers, advocates, and other stakeholders at the end of March to produce careful and comprehensive reentry strategies for the girls remaining at Long Creek and accelerate their release from the facility. Efforts by DOC and other juvenile justice system stakeholders resulted in a 43 percent decline in Long Creek’s detention population in March, in line with across the country trends during the COVID crisis. In addition, the overall number of apprehended and devoted youth at Long Creek has actually decreased 47 percent since the start of the year.
After engaging in these calls with DOC, stakeholders connected by means of the Job Force group email list to discuss this process, take shape lessons found out, and construct on its success. In less than a month, this discussion stimulated the formation of a wider group that assembles through Zoom to check out effective methods to neighborhood reintegration and the creation of committees to parse out these concerns further. DOC is an active member of this group and has devoted to moving this procedure forward.
One outcome of this work is that DOC– in cooperation with MCJPAL and the Cutler Institute at University of Southern Maine– will produce regional neighborhood care teams for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. The care groups, which will consist of representatives from across systems in addition to local stakeholders, will interact to support youth based upon their private requirements and avoid further, much deeper end system involvement, such as positioning at or return to Long Creek.
With the coronavirus crisis, Maine has the rare chance to reconsider its juvenile justice system. Utilizing this ingenious, cross-system cooperation, the state is demonstrating that it can buy community-based assistances, enhance its efforts to create diversionary paths for youth at threat of system involvement, and lower the population of Long Creek permanently.
Lisa Margulies, Esq. is Program Partner at the John T. Gorman Structure, specializing in the Foundation’s focus area of Older Youth. In addition to working as an assistant public protector in Philadelphia and an instructor in New York City public schools, she most recently worked as Senior Policy Specialist at the Criminal Activity and Justice Institute at Community Resources for Justice, supplying technical support to state governments in developing evidence-based policies to improve their criminal and juvenile justice systems.
The post COVID Crisis Spurs Development in Maine’s Juvenile Justice System appeared initially on John T. Gorman Foundation.