Monday, November 17, 2003

EDITORIAL: Review of Long Creek managers right move

The announcement by the governor's office that the investigation of the Long Creek Youth Development Center will include a review of the facility's senior managers is welcome news indeed.

Long Creek is the juvenile detention facility near the site of the old Maine Youth Center, which is the subject of a lawsuit filed against 14 current and former state employees that alleges horrific instances of abuse.

Michael T., a youth center resident who is now 21, claims the abuse occurred during five separate periods of incarceration between 1995 and 1999 at the former Maine Youth Center. For example, the suit alleges that the boy was restrained for more than 49 hours when the center's maximum limit was 30 minutes.

Corrections officials said in court papers that the youth center policies at the time allowed such excesses occasionally. Now, though, restraint is rarely used and there is no isolation room, which the suit alleges Michael T. was kept in for up to three months.

Such abuse should never have been acceptable to people who were in charge of minors. That's why it's important that the governor's office review the role the youth center's current management may have had in this abuse.

Though the governor's investigation got off to a shaky start - he appointed Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnussen to lead it, even though Magnussen was named in the suit - it's now moving in a positive direction. Now, an independent investigator - Ralph Lancaster, a Portland lawyer - is in charge of the probe. Magnussen was named in the suit because he is in charge of the Department of Corrections and was at the time of the alleged abuse.

The department announced that Lars Olson, who was superintendent of the youth center since 1998, would temporarily step down while the investigation is conducted. That's the right move, too.

These are all smart actions. Though the policies at Long Creek may have changed, it's vital to determine if the current management approved of abusive measures in the past. No child should go through what Michael T. allegedly did, and the governor should keep his focus on preventing such actions from occurring under his watch.

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