ADA violation: Maine needlessly institutionalizes kids, DOJ says

Maine is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by unnecessarily institutionalizing children with mental health and developmental disabilities, the Justice Department said June 22.

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The state has a shortage of community-based services that would allow those children to stay in their homes, the department said. The result is that many children are placed in the state-run juvenile detention facility Long Creek Youth Development Center, which the department said has become “a de facto children’s psychiatric facility,” and sometimes in out-of-state facilities.

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