SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Lawmakers and activists have attempted for years to close Maine's only youth prison: Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland.
Complaints about poor conditions for inmates and employees, including major staffing shortages, have plagued the facility. Fewer children are being held at the prison today than in recent years, but reports still suggest there is no clear alternative to divert youth where they can receive mental health support.
Long Creek and other Maine Department of Corrections facilities have tried to improve the staffing crisis, but new documents obtained by NEWS CENTER Maine through a Freedom of Information Act highlight a deeper picture at the youth prison.
The documents show reports of several dozen instances of kids attempting to or actually hurting themselves. Around 60 use-of-force instances. Internal emails of staff wondering if the staffing issues will ever be resolved. An attempted breakout reported to staff. All of these instances just within the span of several months the start of 2022.
The documents were first requested by NEWS CENTER Maine at the end of 2022, as media reports of staffing shortages around MDOC were noted. Our newsroom requested incident report information about how the DOC handles children when they are going through a staffing crisis.
The number of incidents was released, but specific details pertaining to each incident were redacted, blacked out from public view. Despite paying $3,000 for these documents, it may forever remain unknown what happens behind closed doors.
"Long Creek really didn't do anything to help me ... or do anything to make sure I had that support when I was in there," a young woman who was incarcerated in 2022 at Long Creek said. She requested to remain anonymous, so for the purpose of this story, we'll call her Jane.
Jane said she was there during an attempted breakout, which she described as a result of children there feeling uncared for during the staffing crunch.
NEWS CENTER Maine reporting from early 2022 showed how the staffing crisis led to burnout among staff. Several workers ended up logging 16-hour shifts and were so exhausted that they slept at housing designed for girls incarcerated at the facility. (No children or staff were sleeping in the same quarters at the same time.)
"Staff were not watching fights. So many self-harms. So many people almost committed suicide. I was one of the people that committed self-harm, and all they did was watch me do it," Jane said.
The documents detailed at least 37 reports of children harming themselves, including attempts. Jane said she used broken plastic from a soap dispenser.
"They just watched and recorded it and let me go wild," Jane said.
In the documents also reveal 60 instances of workers having to use force against kids.
Jane said it's not surprising. She said she witnessed staff struggle to maintaining order within the prison.
Another ripple effect of the staffing shortage was discussed by workers, indicated in the documents, in which they described shortfalls for reports intended to accurately recall details of the incidents.
"The missing CORIS incidents have been an ongoing challenge because LCYDC has not been collecting written packets pertaining to significant incidents since March 2022," one employee said.
An official with MDOC said that was to be expected and said more mishaps could happen because of the low number of staff tasked with keeping track of the incidents.
Another email in spring 2022 came from Chad Sturgis, a juvenile program worker at the Oak Unit of the prison.
"I am emailing you to express concern for Long Creek, it's residents and the staff working in it," Sturgis wrote in an email to supervising officials with MDOC.
More than half the email is redacted, but his concern is evident, detailing his lack of faith in the department to fix the staffing issues.
"We will not make it through recruitment alone. We have been trying that strategy for over 3 years. Things are not getting better," Sturgis said.
"This is deeply concerning to say the least," Christine Thibeault, the juvenile services associate commissioner for MDOC, said.
Sturgis recommended releasing juveniles who don't pose a threat to the public to ease the burden on staff. Further emails indicated that was not done.
In 2022, it was reported that 30 of the more than 70 jobs at Long Creek were open.
A story last month from the Portland Press Herald showed the number of open positions was 37.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to MDOC to talk about its staffing issues and its protocol for dealing with children who attempt to harm themselves, but we did not hear back by the time this story aired on March 14.
In another report detailing the lack of resources for kids who are turned away from Long Creek, MDOC did reveal it was attempting to address the future of the prison.
MDOC officials shared an end-of-year report from 2023 with NEWS CENTER Maine, which outlined a plan to develop a three-year roadmap for juvenile justice. The commission tasked with providing that plan comprises people from MDOC and members of Maine's Department of Health and Human Services.
In the meantime, bills proposed to Maine lawmakers continue to pave another possibility forward.
Brandon Brown with Maine Youth Justice said LD 1779, which was introduced in the first half of the legislature last year, would provide youth with an assessment of other resources before being directed to Long Creek.
"They would be given a strength-based needs assessment that would outline how we as a community, and our systems can better serve their needs in a way that builds them as opposed to tearing them down with labels and the trauma of incarceration," Brown said in a statement.