Reading the March 20 letter to the editor “It’s way past time to close Long Creek,” I followed the link to LD 756 with interest. The Maine Legislature’s page showed a committee vote mentioning an amendment, but the only text available was: “This bill would explore and establish best practices regarding juvenile criminal services.”

Written testimony from the Department of Corrections commissioner includes these excerpts: “This bill was printed … exactly one year ago, as a concept draft. It has sat dormant as a concept draft for exactly 12 months. There has been no communication by the sponsor to the DOC about this bill during these 12 months. … asking the Department of Corrections … to be prepared to adequately discuss a bill that is suggesting sweeping and massively significant changes with a very hefty $12 million price tag with less than 24 hours’ notice is not reasonable.”

I agree. Our lawmakers are not being transparent when they move forward on such sweeping changes in this style of brinksmanship.

I won’t comment on Long Creek specifically, or youth detention generally – but I’ve also seen far too many bills lately proposing to block one thing without bothering to build up a better solution. That’s irresponsible.

The letter writer says, “Youth should receive treatment by community agencies,” but who can say whether this bill would actually help? Think back to how we shuttered AMHI, and people needing behavioral health treatment basically ended up homeless. Our representatives need to do better than that.

Jim Hall
Portland