Following a razor-thin vote on the Maine House floor last week, lawmakers advanced a bill to give law enforcement another tool for diverting youth away from the criminal justice system.
The bill, LD 1779, would establish a formal process for responding to teenagers accused of a crime without sending them to court. It would give police officers and corrections officials the option to refer teens to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services for a voluntary assessment, which would identify the underlying reasons why they’re getting into trouble and whether support services — from intensive therapy to something as simple as an after-school program — would reduce their chances of breaking the law again.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland, is based on a recent law in New Hampshire that prompted early skepticism from police in that state before winning them over when it went into practice. Unlike in New Hampshire, the Maine version of the bill would make the assessment optional. The bill would not prevent police from referring teens to court or Long Creek Youth Development Center, the state’s only juvenile detention facility, if adolescents posed a danger to themselves or others.
In New Hampshire, requiring assessments of youth accused of a crime had the added benefit of creating an inventory of the programs that kids most often needed, said Moira O’Neill, who helped oversee juvenile justice reforms as the state’s first child advocate and advised Lookner in developing a Maine version of the bill.
It “is exactly what our police chief has been asking for,” Rep. Valli Geiger, D-Rockland, said on the floor of the Maine House when the bill came up for a vote last Thursday.
Geiger’s district has seen a worrying uptick in juvenile crime over the past two years, often involving the same kids who are struggling with their mental health and schooling. The police chief “wants to see a comprehensive assessment of each of these children, and he wants the services put in place instead of a revolving door of going up to Long Creek where they spend the weekend and are released by a judge,” Geiger said.
The House approved the measure in a 75-70 vote, a slim margin that cleared the way for passage in the Senate on Monday but reflects its uphill battle toward becoming law.
Lawmakers’ decision came despite a majority of the members on the Legislature’s criminal justice committee recommending this winter that the bill not pass. Bill opponents argued that police already do a good job diverting the majority of youth away from the juvenile justice system and worried that involving DHHS, a department under intensifying scrutiny for understaffing and dysfunction, would only add more to the agency’s plate.
Supporters, however, argued that the juvenile justice system too often fails at providing the meaningful intervention that adolescents need. A few of them cited during floor speeches recent reporting co-published by the Bangor Daily and New York Times that examined the impact of those failures on families, youth and their communities.
The bill now moves on to the appropriations committee where lawmakers will decide whether to fund its $1.5 million price, which would cover the costs of training health and human services officials to conduct assessments, before heading to Gov. Janet Mills for final approval.
Lawmakers must also decide whether to fund a companion bill proposed by Lookner that would allocate $20 million to expand prevention and support programs for youth at risk of entering the justice system.
BDN reporter Callie Ferguson may be reached at [email protected].