Stories of violence, understaffing and dysfunction at Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland have spilled into the public eye for years now.
But over the past year, the Bangor Daily News chronicled the sprawling problems in Maine’s juvenile justice system that reach beyond the walls of its only youth prison, seeking to answer some of the most urgent questions that matter to families, youth and their communities.
For example, what has been the impact of reducing Long Creek’s population without making comparable strides to expand community-based programs? Who are the young people involved in the juvenile justice system, and what are their lives like?
Some of the most important stories illustrate Maine’s broader struggle to protect and support its most troubled, vulnerable kids while keeping the public safe. They also shine a light on those trying to help.
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Sprawling problems with no clear plan to address them
In February, the BDN examined, in partnership with The New York Times, how little progress state officials had made to fix a shortage of intervention programs for adolescents in the juvenile justice system while the state had continued to divert as many kids from Long Creek as possible.
Law enforcement, parents, advocates and teenagers described the dire consequences of how Maine’s all-or-nothing system of juvenile justice offered limited help to kids who were spiraling out of control but not considered dangerous enough for Long Creek. For example, some families and police officers felt as though they had nowhere to bring a child in the throes of a dangerous episode but the local emergency department, transforming hospitals into “new forms of detention.”
State leaders, meanwhile, had failed to come up with a comprehensive plan for solving that crisis, despite years of state commissioned reports, task forces, legislative efforts and advocacy that urged leaders to overhaul the juvenile system.
Geographic disparities
A first-of-its kind analysis conducted by the BDN, The New York Times and Stanford University’s Big Local News found that adolescents face harsher outcomes in the juvenile justice system depending on where they live across Maine’s vast geography. The examination of corrections and prosecutorial data showed that Aroostook County committed nearly twice as many adolescents to Long Creek over a five-year period than the more populous York County.
The disparity appeared to stem from philosophical differences over the appropriate response to teenagers who got in trouble, the varying availability of services across the state, and the unequal distribution of lawyers and caseloads, according to interviews with defense lawyers, law enforcement officials and former corrections officials.
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One retired district county judge from Fort Kent lamented that the commitments he ordered “always had to do with either a lack of available resources or a secure home for people who were seriously out of control.” In some cases, “it was a matter of preservation — to keep them alive,” he said.
The crisis through one boy’s coming of age
Austin is pictured at his mother’s apartment in Brewer on his 18th birthday. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
The BDN stayed in touch with 17-year-old Austin during his final year as a teenager to give readers a close-up look at one boy’s life in the juvenile justice system.
His story, published Oct. 2, illustrated the constellation of traumas, unmet needs and struggling governmental systems that so often pave the way for kids into the juvenile justice system and Long Creek. That was true even for a teenager like Austin who encountered more than one adult who tried to help him beat the odds.
Signs of hope on the local level
In late 2022, the city of Rockland became known for problems in the juvenile justice system after its police chief publicly criticized the state for providing insufficient services to support troubled teens in the community. The department felt unable to handle a spike in juvenile crime, often involving the same kids over and over again.
But then over two years, community members in the midcoast banded together around a local strategy for supporting kids and teenagers, with a major emphasis on preventing them from getting into trouble in the first place.
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School buses line up at the end of the day in front of Oceanside Middle School in Thomaston, Maine in May. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
Reported in real time over the course of a year, the BDN documented how local police officers, nurses, educators and social workers nurtured experimental ideas into full-blown, grassroots organizations and major federal grants — and how that work could only go so far without greater support.
“I can only work 100 hours a week for so much longer,” one educator leading the work said.
Long Creek had another hard year
Chronic short-staffing and limited programming has brought waves of unrest to Long Creek over the years, including this past winter. During one tumultuous night in January, the BDN reported that a group of boys broke out of the prison — an episode that came days before staff at the prison sent a letter to state corrections officials pleading for help and describing the facility as in crisis. Months later, in July, two boys escaped by jumping from the prison’s roof.
Federal lawsuit brought hope for long-awaited change
The state of Maine and the federal government reached a court-supervised settlement agreement last month to expand children’s mental health services.
The U.S. Department of Justice had sued Maine in September over a pattern of unnecessarily institutionalizing children with behavioral health challenges, including at Long Creek, due to the state’s shortage of community-based services.
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The terms of the settlement “will mean more kids who will be able to stay at home and in their communities, more children who will be moved out of detention facilities, and more children who will be less likely to get trapped in the juvenile justice system,” said Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in an interview with the BDN following the announcement.
Advocates expressed cautious optimism over the decision, knowing it could take years to see changes.
Reporter Callie Ferguson may be reached at cferguson@bangordailynews.com.
Cory LaForge always liked a particular restaurant space on Main Street in Bucksport, which recently housed My Buddy’s Place and the Friar’s Brewhouse Tap Room before that.
So much so that, when it became available two months ago, he decided to open his own restaurant there.
Salsa Shack Maine, which opened in early December, is a physical location for the food truck business he’s operated out of Ellsworth and Orland for the last two years. The new spot carrying tacos, burritos and quesadillas adds to a growing restaurant scene in Bucksport and is meant to be a welcoming community space.
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“I just loved the feeling of having a smaller restaurant,” LaForge said. “It feels more intimate. This place is designed where you can have a good conversation or talk to your customers, like they’re not just another number on a ticket.”
Salsa Shack Maine joins a growing number of new restaurants on Main Street in Bucksport. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
After growing up in the midcoast, LaForge eventually moved west to work in restaurants at ski areas, where he was exposed to more cultural diversity and new types of food – including tacos.
“It’s like all these different flavors that we’re not exposed to in Maine, so it’s like, I feel like I’ve been living a lie my whole life,” he said. “It was fun to bring all those things that I learned back here.”
When he realized his goal of opening a food truck in 2023 after returning to Maine, LaForge found the trailer he’d purchased on Facebook Marketplace was too small to fit anything but tortillas – and the Salsa Shack was born.
It opened at the Ellsworth Harbor Park in 2023 and operated out of the Orland Community Center in the winter. What started as an experiment took off in popularity and has been busy ever since.
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LaForge calls his style “Maine-Mex:” a mix of authentic street tacos in a build-your-own format with different salsas and protein. Speciality salsas include corn and black bean, roasted poblano, pineapple jalapeno and mango Tajin.
The larger kitchen space in the new restaurant has allowed a menu expansion to include quesadillas, burritos and burrito bowls in addition to the tacos, nachos and taco salad bowls sold from the food truck. Regular specials are also on the menu.
Salsa Shack’s new Bucksport kitchen means room for owner Cory LaForge to experiment. He’s added quesadillas, burritos and burrito bowls to the menu alongside regular specials, such as this shrimp taco. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
More new menu items are likely ahead, according to LaForge, along with a beer and wine license and expanded hours in the spring.
The food truck will live on for now, too; he’s signed up for a few events in the coming months.
Starting Jan. 6, the restaurant will also offer a buy-two-get-one-free “Taco Tuesday” promotion.
“It’s a really fun vibe here, and I feel like everyone finds it very comfortable and easy to come in and order,” LaForge said, comparing the restaurant’s atmosphere to the television show Cheers. “Even if you have to sit down and wait a little while, we always have some fun conversations going on.”
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So far, the welcome has been warm locally, he said, both from residents and the other new restaurant owners who help each other out. LaForge’s sole employee, Connor MacLeod, is also a familiar face from MacLeod’s Restaurant, which closed in March after 45 years on Main Street.
When it shut its doors, people in town weren’t sure where they would go, according to LaForge. But four new establishments opened in 2025, offering a range from Thai food to diner offerings.
“It’s kind of fun to see so [many] culinary changes,” he said.
The Salsa Shack is currently open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
The logos for streaming services Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and Sling TV are pictured on a remote control on Aug. 13, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (Jenny Kane/Associated Press)
Maine consumers will soon see a new line on their monthly Netflix and Hulu bills. Starting Jan. 1, digital streaming services will be included in the state’s 5.5% sales tax.
The new charge — billed by the state as a way to level the playing field around how cable and satellite services and streaming services are taxed — is among a handful of tax changes coming in the new year.
The sales tax on adult-use cannabis will increase from 10% to 14%, also on Jan. 1. Taxes on cigarettes will increase $1.50 per pack — from $2 to $3.50 — on Jan. 5.
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All three changes are part of the $320 million budget package lawmakers approved in June as an addition to the baseline $11.3 billion two-year budget passed in March.
Here are a few things to know about the streaming tax:
1. Why is this new tax taking effect?
Taxes on streaming services have been a long time coming in Maine. Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage proposed the idea in 2017, and it was pitched by Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, in 2020 and 2024. The idea was rejected all three times — until this year.
State officials said last spring the change creates fairness in the sales tax as streaming services become more popular and ubiquitous. It’s also expected to generate new revenue for the state.
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2. What services are impacted?
Currently, music and movies that are purchased and downloaded from a website are subject to sales tax, but that same music and those same movies are not taxed when streamed online.
The new changes add sales tax to monthly subscriptions for movie, television and audio streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Spotify and Pandora. Podcasts and ringtones or other sound recordings are also included.
3. How much is it likely to cost you?
The new tax would add less than $1 to a standard Netflix subscription without ads priced at $17.99 per month. An $89.99 Hulu live television subscription would increase by about $5 per month.
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Beginning Jan. 1, providers will be required to state the amount of sales tax on customers’ receipts or state that their price includes Maine sales tax.
4. How much new revenue is this generating for the state?
The digital streaming tax is expected to bring in $5 million in new revenue in fiscal year 2026, which ends June 30. After that, it’s projected to bring in $12.5 million annually, with that figure expected to increase to $14.3 million by 2029.
The tax increase on cigarettes, which also includes an equivalent hike on other tobacco products, is expected to boost state revenues by about $75 million in the first year.
The cannabis sales tax increase, meanwhile, will be offset in part by a reduction in cannabis excise taxes, which are paid by cultivation facilities on transfers to manufacturers or retailers. The net increase in state revenue will be about $3.9 million in the first full year, the state projects.
Cars and trucks travel northbound along the Maine Turnpike in Arundel through a messy wintry mix on Feb. 4, 2022. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)
A wintry mix is forecasted to come down on Maine starting in the early hours of Monday morning.
A mix of sleet and snow is expected to start falling around 1 a.m. Monday in the Portland area and closer to 3 a.m. in the Lewiston area. The mix will likely transition to freezing rain on Monday morning in time for the morning commute, making roads icy, according to the National Weather Service in Gray.
“That’s going to make conditions not ideal for traveling,” said Stephen Baron, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
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As temperatures inch above 32 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday afternoon, the freezing rain is forecasted to transition to regular rain. Ice on the roads will start to melt over the afternoon as well.
The forecast for the rest of the week is fairly clear as of now. The only other potential precipitation is on Wednesday, with a festive snowfall on New Year’s Eve “around the countdown,” said Baron.
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Sophie is a community reporter for Cumberland, Yarmouth, North Yarmouth and Falmouth and previously reported for the Forecaster. Her memories of briefly living on Mount Desert Island as a child drew her…
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