Officially hideous

Edward Loughran did a fine job assessing the shortcomings of the Maine Youth Center and outlining remedies. The former Massachusetts juvenile corrections chief was very thorough in his review, he no doubt earned every bit of his $21,100 consulting fee.

So thorough, in fact, that his report covers nearly every shortcoming and remedy Maine legislatures going back a decade would have known about had they been listening to those who deal with the South Portland facility every day.

From those who work there, lawmakers would have heard about the impact years of budget cuts have had upon staffing levels, morale, educational and rehabilitation programs, building upkeep. From the kids sentenced there, and their families, they would have heard about the degrading atmosphere such state-sanctioned neglect fosters, about the boredom and hopelessness that results. From virtually every police chief and sheriff in the state, they would have heard the real concern that the kid who comes out of the Youth Center is likely to be more anti-social, more embittered, more angry than the kid who went in.

Still, if it takes hiring a consultant to give common knowledge an official stamp of approval, so be it. If it takes the humiliation of being cited by Amnesty International as a prime example of hideous juvenile corrections practices in the United States, so be it. Just so lawmakers now do something about it.

Mr. Loughran is a recognized expert in the field and his findings are indisputable: The 145-year-old campus is overcrowded, buildings are in advanced stages of disrepair, there are too few classrooms and teachers, there is no separate facility for mentally ill or drug-addicted offenders. The pay is low, the working hours long and stressful, the turnover is high. In short, Loughran found years of deep budget cuts had the inevitable and totally predictable result of turning Maine’s juvenile correction system into a “prison-like culture.”

Last year’s legislature did appropriate $25 million to upgrade MYC and a smaller facility in Charleston — after the Department of Corrections led lawmakers on guided tours of the facilities and judges mounted a scolding campaign. Yet early this session, rumblings were heard from the new Legislature about scrapping the renovation plan, employing the hoary argument that programs should come before bricks and mortar. Mr. Loughran’s report makes it clear that adequate buildings are an integral part of a solution.

The net effect of the tours, the scoldings and the Amnesty International report has been good — there now are lawmakers who take the issue seriously and who seem dedicated to making improvements. Still, it’s unfortunate that some of this new advocacy is tainted by a fair amount of blame-shifting to the Department of Corrections, as though the budgets passed by legislatures had nothing to do with the problem.

It’s often said that free advice is worth every penny. For years, Maine lawmakers have ignored the free advice given by those most closely involved with juvenile corrections. If Mr. Loughran’s report and its cachet of official expertise leads to a new, long-term commitment to juvenile corrections, to creating a system that helps troubled kids and treats staff with respect, it, too, is worth every penny. Even if it took 2.11 million of them.