February Updates

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Policy

The Council of State Governments (CSG) has released a national playbook: "Removing Structural Barriers to Employment," which explores best practice goals and strategies that states can implement to reduce the negative impacts of employment-related collateral consequences. Though they haven't released a state specific playbook for Maine, yet, this report is still relevant.

Research

The Place Matters team has released a new report brief that explores parental incarceration in Maine, with data on how many children are impacted by parental incarceration and recommendations for policy decision makers. Read the report here.

We were also captivated by this research from Child Trends that looks at the one in five undergraduate students who are also parents and discusses how institutions can better serve them. Read more here or check out the summary infographic here. Finally, The Sentencing Project has put out a new publication on racial disparities in youth incarceration, finding that although youth incarceration numbers have been on the declined, black and Native American youth are still disproportionately impacted. This national report is missing Maine data, but still worth a read here.

IN THE NEWS

Bill to address structural racism in policy unveiled with wide support
Maine Beacon (2/3/21)
USM report explores plight of children of people in Maine prisons
Portland Press Herald (2/1/21)
$14.6 million awarded to help combat homelessness in Maine
The Penobscot Bay Pilot (1/29/21)
'It really takes its toll' -- pandemic brings mental health struggles to light in Maine
NewsCenterMaine (1/27/21)
Maine Youth Justice advocating for no youth incarceration in Maine
NewsCenterMaine (1/18/21)
The Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic Celebrates 50 Years of Advancing Access to Justice
Maine Law Magazine (Winter/Spring 2021)

Practice

The Aspen Institute held their Opportunity Youth Forum in September, but recently made the videos from the sessions available to those who are interested! We were very inspired by and highly recommend taking a look at this presentation on Aspen's Criminal Justice Reform Initiative.

R E G I O N A L C A R E T E A M S

All three regional care teams met in January.

Region 1: A case review explored support options for a young person with high mental health needs. Issues raised included the lack of mental health crisis supports for young people.
Region 2: Discussion focused on reflections for 2020 and vision for 2021. No case review this month.
Region 3: Focused on building inclusive supportive housing options for a youth in Northern Maine, who has been housing insecure and is transitioning from DOC supervision. The team also identified a number of gaps and barriers at the macro level raised questions to raise to policymakers, including how to prevent net-widening/over reliance on corrections, service gaps and service deserts in Region 3, what to do when there is no guiding assessment, and issues around the competency statute.

For more information about regional care teams, click here.

S T A Y C O N N E C T E D

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