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Statement

Decision to Close Maine Youth Prison a Victory for State’s Kids, Families, Moms Leader Says

June 17, 2021
School-to-Prison Pipeline

Lisa Lederer, 202/371-1996

Statement from Beatriz Beckford, National Director for Youth and Family Justice at MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the decision to close Long Creek Youth Development Center:

“We commend state legislators in Maine for their vote to close Long Creek Youth Development Center – a  youth prison – within two years, and instead invest the funds in community-based alternatives. We look forward to Gov. Mills signing the legislation into law. Like every state and our federal government, Maine should invest in children, not prisons.

“Maine spends $250,000 per year to incarcerate a child and just $13,000 to send a child to school, and youth of color are grossly overrepresented at Long Creek.

It is a failed institution and incarcerating children is a failed practice.

We need a new model of youth justice that promotes healing for individuals and communities.

“Long Creek is just part of the problem. In the United States today, nearly 60,000 youth under age 18 are incarcerated in jails or prisons and approximately 10,000 who were tried as adults are housed in adult facilities. We incarcerate more young people than any other country. Youth prisons are ineffective and expensive and do less to improve community safety than supporting young people with the services and opportunities they need. We need a continuum of community-based alternatives to incarceration for all our kids.”

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.