Workers Make Recommendations to Address Understaffing & Turmoil at Long Creek Youth Development Center
Over a month after making detailed recommendations to the Maine Department of Corrections without any action having been taken on them, Maine Service Employees Association members (MSEA-SEIU 1989) who work at Long Creek Youth Development Center (LCYDC) in South Portland are taking their recommendations public. The recommendations include shoring up staffing levels at the state-run youth facility, developing stable shift schedules that don’t rely on mandatory 12-hour shifts, and restoring many positions that in years prior had provided educational, athletic, behavioral and emotional services to the youths in state custody.
MSEA represents teachers in the Arthur R. Gould School, a state-run school serving youth at Long Creek, as well as the maintenance staff and the supervisory correctional staff at the facility. Other unions representing workers at the facility include AFSCME and the Maine State Law Enforcement Association.
The workers detailed their recommendations in a three-page letter they delivered Feb. 7 to the leadership of the facility and the Maine Department of Corrections. The workers argued that there’s an urgent need for immediate action to address staff concerns relating to safety and security of both youths at the facility and staff, and to ensure the youths have access to educational and recreational program and other services they need. The letter from the workers cited monthly statistics, from July through December of 2023, documenting fights, resident assaults, resident assaults on staff, use of force and significant incidents involving three or more residents at the facility.
“We are writing to you because we have serious safety concerns about current conditions at LCYDC. Our knowledgeable and experienced security staff, educators, and support staff are not receiving the support needed each day,” wrote the MSEA-represented workers at the facility. “The inner perimeter within LCYDC currently lacks a safe and secure organizational structure. This includes poor staff scheduling, limited staff availability, inability for residents to engage in programming, and lack of engagement for productive discussion from the commissioner's office and facility administrators. This contributes to dire safety and security concerns among staff interacting with our high-risk adolescent juvenile population.”
The MSEA members continued, “In the past months, lack of staffing has led to riots in the facility. Sadly, residents who want to be successful and desire access to LCYDC's educational programming, resources, and staff are harmed and threatened by these incidents. Over the past four years, the chronic staffing and scheduling issues, declining recruitment and retention of staff, unsafe working conditions, and unsustainable work schedule expectations have persistently placed our resident children and staff in harm's way, and we believe this is entirely avoidable. We have raised these concerns, outlined several remedies, and have pleaded for help from the facility's administration and the Department of Corrections on numerous occasions, yet we have seen no measurable response.”
In their letter, the workers made 13 recommendations to the Department of Corrections to address staffing at the facility, including the restoration of positions that had been cut over the years. Doing so would increase staffing levels, address the issue of staff burnout and ensure the delivery of services to youths at the facility.
The workers also made several recommendations to improve work schedules. They asked that the Department of Corrections work with the security staff to develop stable shift schedules and to stop forcing new hires to work 12-hour shifts — at least until they have reached one year of service. They also requested an incentive structure for filling vacancies and unfilled shifts.
The workers said in a statement that they are encouraged that Maine Department of Corrections Commissioner Randy Liberty has indicated a willingness to meet with them to discuss their concerns. They have reached out to the Department of Corrections in an attempt to schedule that meeting.