Maine has tried to send fewer teenagers to prison, emphasizing rehabilitation programs instead. But the rural north of the state shows the effort has played out unevenly.
Maine has tried to send fewer teenagers to prison, emphasizing rehabilitation programs instead. But the rural north of the state shows the effort has played out unevenly.
Law enforcement’s readiness to handle mental health situations has come under scrutiny since October, when a Bowdoin man killed 18 people in Lewiston in the worst mass shooting in Maine history, and the disclosure that the Sagadahoc County sheriff’s.
With a shortage of mental health professionals, Maine police officers are forced to make decisions during mental heakth crises without proper training.