ACLU of MaineVerified account

Harms and Risks of Detention *Disrupts connections to family, school, and communities *Exacerbates mental illness and risk of self-harm *Increases likelihood of delinquent behavior *Slows the natural aging out process of delinquency

Jason Szanyi, CCLP: there are several areas where current probation and community reintegration practices depart from best practices. Terms/conditions of probation are not focused on skill-building & positive goals.

Report of @CrimeVictimsOrg/@JusticePolicy: “Research shows that length of stay has a negligible impact on rearrest rates after 3 to 6 months. Providing the wrong dosage of supervision can impact a youth’s future involvement in violence.”

“Restorative justice practices allow youth to remain in the community and have better recidivism outcomes than the use of confinement, hold youth accountable for their actions, and achieve more victim satisfaction than other justice system processes.”

Long sentences don't make a positive difference. Expected rate of rearrest does not go down by holding kids for longer periods, and can even go up.

"There is widespread consensus that youth must ultimately have the skills to be successful within the communities to which they will return – skills that are difficult to build in a large secure facility that is far from many youth’s homes and families."

Here are a few key CCLP recs:

Create a presumption of community-based responses for most youth, limiting the use of commitment and out-of-home placement. Develop placements that could better address the needs of the small number of youth requiring an out-of-home placement.