A group of young people opposed to juvenile incarceration are renewing their call to empty the Long Creek Youth Development Center, Maine’s last youth prison, as two staffers there have tested positive with COVID-19.
The infections at the juvenile detention center come as the virus is spreading through a number of Maine’s prisons and jails. There are currently 122 positive cases at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, three cases in the Maine State Prison and two cases at the Androscoggin County Jail.
This fall, inmates, staff and community members were infected following an outbreak at the York County Jail, emanating from a jail staffer who attended the Millinocket wedding in August which has been linked to 177 cases. One inmate, jailed on a drug charge, died after recovering from the virus. The state Medical Examiner’s Office said the coronavirus likely contributed to his death.
“The COVID-19 outbreak in Long Creek, Maine Correctional Center and Maine State Prison is a clear failure of our local and state leaders to protect those behind bars,” said Al Cleveland, campaign manager for Maine Youth Justice.
“We demand our youth be immediately released with individualized transition plans that include housing to quarantine, health care, technology and basic resources,” said Lewiston resident Adan Abdikadir, a 20-year-old organizer with Maine Youth Justice. “During this process, Governor Janet Mills and the Maine CDC must immediately begin universal testing at all Maine Department of Corrections facilities.”
Maine Youth Justice first organized around a call to close the juvenile detention center and repurpose the facility’s $18.2 million operating budget towards small, community-based residential spaces for young people.
Throughout the pandemic, Mills, who was formerly Maine’s top law enforcement official as Attorney General, has opposed using her executive authority to commute sentences to decrease the prison population. The number of young people in the state’s prison system has remained relatively constant during the pandemic. According to the Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC), the population at Long Creek rose from 35 in March to 38 last month. Currently, there are 30 young people in detention.
Early on in the pandemic, Maine Youth Justice organizers asked MDOC to implement universal testing at the youth facility, but were rebuffed. The MDOC tests only symptomatic people in their system, and only tests entire facilities after outbreaks occur, citing U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
On Thursday, Maine CDC director Dr. Nirav Shah said MDOC was not considering changing its testing strategy in light of the ongoing outbreaks in the prison system.
“We follow the U.S. CDC guidelines, and from an epidemiological perspective, I don’t see that we’re going to be departing from those,” Shah said in response to a question on universal testing in prisons.
Several states have gone above the U.S. CDC recommendations to implement universal testing.
Long Creek has 187 staffers that come into the facility every day, potentially bringing the virus with them.
“It’s traumatizing for young people in Long Creek. If you’re feeling sick, you don’t know if you have a cold if or you have COVID. You don’t know how to get tested or advocate for yourself,” Abdikadir said. “You don’t know if the staff has it, the ones who serve you food, provide your clothing, give you haircuts.”
“There are many different things they could be doing to find alternatives to keeping young people locked in during an outbreak,” said Sierra Powell, a mother of two who was formerly incarcerated. Powell recently joined Maine Youth Justice’s decarceration campaign.
“It’s ridiculous, because it just puts a lot more people in danger at the end of the day,” she said.
Legislation to shutter the youth prison was one of 480 bills that were left to expire when lawmakers did not return to Augusta after the regular legislative session was cut short due to the pandemic. Proposed laws to divert people affected by substance use, untreated mental health conditions, and homelessness away from the state’s jails and prisons were also among the shelved bills.
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