Maine

State Demographics

In 1996, Maine's youth population under age 18 was approximately 299,500 (Casey Foundation 1998).

Of the State's children, approximately 6 percent were living in families with incomes below 50 percent of the poverty level in 1995. Further, it is estimated that in 1995, approximately 22 percent of Maine's children under age 13 were living in working-poor families or families where at least one parent was working 50 or more hours a week but the family's income was still below the poverty level (Casey Foundation 1998).

Maine ranked 4^th in the country in terms of teen birth rate for 1995. This same year, the birth rate in the State was approximately 19 births per 1,000 young women ages 15-17. This was down from 22 births per 1,000 young women in 1985 (Casey Foundation 1998).

Overview of the Juvenile Justice System

In Maine, juvenile offenders are processed in District Courts that operate as Juvenile Courts. Further, Maine has approximately 134 local police departments plus 16 county sheriffs' departments and the Maine State Police. According to the Maine Juvenile Code, juvenile offenders arrested by any of these agencies may not be detained without the prior approval of a juvenile caseworker. Caseworkers are under the jurisdiction of the State Department of Corrections (Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group 1994, pp. 6, 9).

The State has two secure facilities for juvenile offenders, the Maine Youth Center and the Northern Maine Juvenile Detention Facility (NMJD). The NMJD facility opened in January 1998, and the State of Maine has since taken over full responsibility for the detention of juveniles.

The Formula Grants Program in the State is housed within the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group in the Department of Corrections.

Offense Patterns and Processing of Juvenile Female Offenders

The following statistics give an overview of the information available on female offending and processing patterns in Maine:

• In 1992, young women represented 19.9 percent of juvenile arrests. Similarly, in 1991, arrests of young women were 19.6 percent and in 1990, arrests were 19.3 percent (Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group 1994, p. 12).

• In 1992, young women represented 7.5 percent of the juvenile arrests for violent crime, such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. This is a decrease from 12.8 percent in 1991 and 12.2 percent in 1990 (Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group 1994, p. 13).

• Also in 1992, young women represented 19.6 percent of the juvenile arrests for property crimes such as burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. This is a decrease from 20 percent in 1991 (Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group 1994, p. 18).

• In 1992, young women represented 19 percent (56) of the youth admitted to detention and 14 percent (35) of the youth committed (Poe-Yamagata and Butts 1996, p. 19).

• In 1994, young women represented 22.7 percent (2,392) of all juvenile arrests; in 1995, that number grew to 23.3 percent (2,714) of all juvenile arrests (Maine Department of Corrections 1998).

Since its original application for Challenge Activity funds, Maine has accomplished many of its objectives. They include the following:

• Provide training for staff of the Maine Youth Center (MYC). This is the only secure placement for juvenile female offenders in the State. Males placed at MYC are assigned to one of seven cottage programs based on their age, legal status, offense history, and treatment needs. Female offenders, on the other hand, are placed in one of two cottages, and most of the services provided are brought into the cottage from other places or handled on an ad hoc basis. Following a review of MYC management and policies, the administration of the Maine Department of Corrections identified "an immediate and critical" need for gender-specific training for the staff of MYC (Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group 1995, p. 1).

• Conduct a forum to identify issues and strategies based on a dialogue among the corrections, research, and advocacy communities. In November 1996, Maine held a forum to address the needs of juvenile female offenders and to begin discussion among various groups in the State about how to address these needs. The forum was held at the Governor's Mansion and was attended by representatives from corrections, individual service programs, academic researchers, and advocates for young women. This forum also resulted in the publishing of a Forum Proceeding. For information on receiving these proceedings, see Appendix B, Available State Products.

• Convene a task force to promote better policy development for the management of female juvenile offenders through research and advocacy. As a direct result of the forum, representatives from corrections, public and private programs, the research community, and advocates for young women established a task force to continue to address the management of female juvenile offenders through research and advocacy. The task force was staffed by faculty and researchers at the Edmund S. Muskie Institute.

• In October 1997, the Justice for Girls Task Force completed its work. The task force's findings and recommendations are available in the Task Force Final Report. To aid the task force in their efforts, faculty and staff of the Muskie School of Public Affairs created four research reports:
  1. Programs That Work: A Review of Promising Practices in Female Juvenile Justice.

  2. Girls in Maine: A Sociodemographic Profile of Juveniles In and Outside of the Juvenile Justice System.

  3. Perceptions of Girls in Maine's Juvenile Justice System.

  4. Assessing Juvenile Justice in Maine: Perceptions of Justice System Personnel.

In response to these recommendations, the Maine Department of Corrections has convened a work group to create a curriculum focused on gender-responsive programming for girls, which will be developed, revised, and delivered to a pilot group of trainees in the fall of 1998.

The intent of the curriculum development work group is to implement the curriculum statewide to any personnel who make decisions about or who work directly with girls in the juvenile justice system.

References

Annie E. Casey Foundation. 1998. KIDS COUNT Online Data Service. Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore, MD.

Maine Department of Corrections. 1998. Crime in Maine 1995. Augusta, ME.

Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group. 1994. Maine Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Three Year Plan FY 1994. Submitted to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Washington, DC.

Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group. 1995. Maine 1995 Challenge Activity E Grant Application. Submitted to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Washington, DC.

Maine Juvenile Justice Advisory Group. 1996. Maine 1996 Categorical Assistance Progress Report. Submitted to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Washington, DC.

Poe-Yamagata, E., and J.A. Butts. 1996. Female Offenders in the Juvenile Justice System: Statistics Summary. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Washington, DC.

Juvenile Female Offenders: A Status of the States Report

October 1998