Maine youth prison lays off nearly half its teachers, hires commisioners daughter

Source: Bangor Daily News

PORTLAND, Maine — Layoffs at Maine’s juvenile prison have left the school that serves its young inmates without qualified teachers for a number of subjects, including math.

Prison officials said budget uncertainty forced them to cut educators, who they acknowledge play a key role in improving the behavior of inmates, but they also recently hired the Commissioner of Corrections’ daughter to study bullying at the facility.

Last Friday, the Long Creek Youth Development Center laid off six teachers and an assistant principal, cutting its teaching staff by nearly half. The deep cut comes even as the South Portland prison continues to struggles to help an inmate population that has a high rate of mental illness and can be prone to violent or destructive incidents that the facility’s head said are less common during school hours.

The layoffs come as a result of Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to eliminate more than a dozen jobs at the troubled youth prison, despite the fact that the legislative committee that oversees criminal justice recommended against them after Department of Corrections officials testified in February that cutting the teaching staff might jeopardize the accreditation of the Arthur R. Gould School.

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Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2017/06/13/news/state/maine-youth-prison-lays-off-nearly-half-its-teachers-hires-commisioners-daughter/