Mountain View’s goal: Therapy not trauma

About half the juvenile offenders who come in for a shock sentence never come back, according to Eric Hansen, superintendent at Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston. But it’s not because Mountain View is a “snake pit” or because shock-sentenced youths are treated any differently from the other offenders there.

The first few days and weeks of any jail term are likely to be especially traumatic, Hansen said – strip-searches are necessary to keep the facility drug-free, orientation to the facility’s rules and procedures can be overwhelming, and an independent-minded youngster quickly realizes that his time is no longer his own.

Incarceration is “no picnic, nor is it intended to be,” Hansen said. “When you come to Mountain View, you lose your freedom, your privacy, your connection to your community and your peers, and your ability to make personal decisions. You have very limited contact with your family.”

Those losses, however, are offset in a longer sentence by the ability to work on personal problems and medical issues. Mountain View’s mission is to be therapeutic rather than punitive, Hansen said.

Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston and Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland recently were audited by the American Correctional Association, and for the first time in the state’s history, both juvenile facilities will receive national accreditation this year.

It costs about $300 a day to keep a juvenile incarcerated at Mountain View.