Efforts to address chronic problems in Maine’s juvenile justice system have all but stalled, an examination by The New York Times and Bangor Daily News found. As a result, many adolescents are neither held accountable for their wrongdoing nor given the help, required by state law, to change their behavior.
While officials have significantly reduced the number of young offenders sent to the state’s only youth prison over the past decade, they have created few therapeutic alternatives — with dire consequences for adolescents and their communities.
The reporter behind this project
Callie Ferguson is an investigative reporter on the BDN’s Maine Focus team who writes about criminal justice. She spent a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow examining Maine’s juvenile justice system. She can be reached at cferguson@bangordailynews.com.
About the fellowship
The New York Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship gives journalists the opportunity to produce signature investigative work focused on their state or region that is published by both The Times and local newsrooms. Ferguson was one of seven journalists nationwide to be selected for the first year of the prestigious fellowship. She began her work in March 2023. Read more about her selection here.
