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| Juvenile detention center’s closure a sign alternatives worked |
| By bangordailynews.com |
| Published: 08/10/2015 |
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The closing of the Mountain View Youth Development Center marks an important turning point in how Maine treats its youngest offenders. Instead of sending children to a detention center, Maine has aggressively pursued alternatives, which is better for the kids and for taxpayers. When it opened in 2001, the facility in Charleston was meant to accommodate 140 youths. In recent years, it housed between 55 and 80. When the shutdown was announced this week, there were nine juvenile inmates at Mountain View. The Department of Corrections has transferred them to the Long Creek Development Center in South Portland. The Mountain View facility likely will be used to house adult prisoners. Two major factors are at play in the decline, according to Jody Breton, deputy commissioner of the Department of Corrections. One is the steep drop in youth arrest rates. The other is the success of alternatives to incarceration. A third but small contributing factor is Maine’s declining youth population. Read More. |
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