By Ward Peck
Editor
    In the last few years, South Portland’s Long Creek Youth Development Center has been dealing with a handful of allegations of abuse of residents at the hands of workers in the facility.  In July 2006, former Day One substance abuse councilor Kristi Higgins was cleared of sexual abuse charges stemming from a relationship with a former resident of the facility. The relationship was found to have started after the youth had been released from the facility and his professional relationship with Higgins had ended, according to news reports.
    Angela Theriault, a former inmate supervisor employed by the Department of Corrections will soon go on trial. Theriault is accused of carrying on a sexual relationship with a juvenile resident while the resident was working outside the facility. According to Theriault, that trial is set to begin March 1.
    For Long Creek Superintendent Rodney Bouffard, the media’s focus on what has gone wrong at the facility overshadows the many successes achieved on a daily basis at the facility.
    Long Creek, one of two youth incarceration facilities in Maine, serves the southern half of the state from Kittery to Wiscasset. It has received accolades from a number of accreditation organizations.
    The American Correctional Association (ACA) found Long Creek achieved a 100 percent compliance of mandatory standards and a 99 percent compliance with all non-mandatory standards. The ACA audit rates facilities on more than 430 standards. Less than 20 percent of juvenile facilities receive ACA accreditation.
    Long Creek’s model is that of a reformatory rather than a place to warehouse troubled youth for the duration of their sentences, although the 19th century idea of a reformatory bears little resemblance to what takes place within Long Creek's walls.
     Maine is one of a handful of states that use indeterminate sentencing guidelines for youth offenders. With indeterminate sentencing, residents are required to achieve a certain level of improvement in life skills before they are released, rather than waiting out a sentence set at a predetermined duration.
    “There are five things that if we fix, will result in a strong probability that a kid will succeed,” Bouffard said. “Those things are: family situation, school and work, values and beliefs, substance abuse and peer relations.”
    Care plans and treatment plans are developed for each resident, outlining their challenges and goals. As the youths achieve those goals and demonstrate good behavior skills they move up a hierarchy of phase and sub-phase levels from one to four. As a resident moves to a higher phase, he or she is granted more freedom.
    Bouffard said inmates are followed even after they are released. Each must be reinterviewed 30 days after their release date. If it is determined that the youth is slipping back into old habits, they are readmitted.
    "We don't have to wait until they are arrested again," Bouffard said.
    Indeterminate sentencing allows residents at Long Creek to be given opportunities unprecedented in youth incarceration facilities. Residents who have advanced enough in their care often work outside of the facility and some  even attended classes at public high schools and local colleges such as the University of Southern Maine and Southern Maine Community College.
    For the majority of residents who do not attend classes outside the facility, Long Creek has its own school based upon the “Learning for Life” model, know as the A.R. Gould School. Residents learn about the core subjects of math, English, history and science through vocational skills such as carpentry, graphic arts and culinary arts.
    “If a kid is here a year, he or she will improve a year and three months academically,” Bouffard said. “The average state passing grade for the G.E.D. [graduate equivalency degree] is 89. At Long Creek it is 96.”
    One resident made available during a tour of the facility claimed that when he arrived at Long Creek shortly after his 17th birthday, he had the academic credentials of a freshman in high school. Shortly before his 18th birthday, he had the credentials of a freshman in college and is currently taking college-level classes through a distance-learning program, he said. The resident also took part in a candidate’s forum at the facility last fall, allowing residents to quiz candidates such as Gov. John Baldacci and Chandler Woodcock on policies they would pursue.
    But even the residents with success stories stumble. That same resident had achieved the highest phase level, a 4-4 allowing him to work off site. While he was offsite, he and another resident fled to their hometowns. When he was returned to the facility, he was bumped down to the lowest phase. Asked why he would take such a risk, the resident cited “issues at home,” and “not thinking clearly.”
    In addition to academic programs, the facility offers programs that teach residents about astronomy and crocheting– which seems oddly popular with the male population but is limited to higher phased residents due to availability of knitting hooks.
    Bouffard acknowledged violence is a concern among the population. He said there are currently two gangs operating within the facility.
    “Since that element has come in, we’ve needed to establish more security policies,” Bouffard said.
    The facility itself– viewed during a tour scheduled well ahead of the visit– is clean and quiet and is more reminiscent of a public high school than a prison. The hallways were largely empty except for an occasional resident being escorted by a staff member or a group of residents walking single-file to the lunchroom. The tour was limited to the male wing.
    Residents are organized into units that can house a maximum of 30 individuals segregated by age and risk-level. In addition to three staff members assigned to each pod, volunteers, councilors, mentors and other volunteers were ubiquitous.
    According to Bouffard, Long Creek currently hosts 121 active volunteers.
    Each unit consists of a “day room” or common area for the unit’s residents. There are meeting rooms and offices as well as a closet-size “time out” room with a window in the door. Initially conceived as a form of punishment, the time out rooms have become a privilege for residents who use it to perform activities without being disturbed.
    Each unit is further divided into pods consisting of 10 single-occupancy rooms, bathroom and shower facilities around a common area. Residents’ rooms are locked and can only be opened from a control room located within the day room. Two shower rooms are available to residents, with enough room available for a single resident to undress, shower and dress before exiting.
    Among the statistics cited by Bouffard, the one any incarceration facility is ultimately  judged upon is the recidivism rate: how many residents find themselves locked up again after being released.
    According to statistics cited by Bouffard, the national recidivism rate for juveniles is 40 percent, former Long Creek residents return at a rate of 15 percent.
    Long Creek did not always enjoy an esteemed reputation, but Bouffard said many of the facilities shortcomings exist in the past and is confident improvement will continue during his tenure.