Bookmark & share:

E-mail this page E-mail a letter to the editor Reader Comments (below)

This letter is in response to the Aug. 6 story "These children need a place." As a social worker, involved with troubled adolescents for the past 10 years, I can attest to the plight of those mothers. Among a growing number of young men with no fathers at home, the crime rate has increased dramatically throughout the past decade. The combined effects of testosterone, an increasing violent culture (15 homicides in Maine already this year) and the lack of a positive male role model in the home can create angry, aggressive young men. Acceptance and validation is often provided by older adolescent males seeking to recruit for their "gangs." The younger male is then required to "car shop" (rifling through open vehicles for anything they can find), assault innocent people and engage in property destruction to gain initiation into the gang. This is occurring frequently and will ultimately overwhelm our already inadequate correctional facilities.

There are answers. One is to increase the state's Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Corrections responsibilities to intervene on the behalf of parents unable to provide adequate support for their children. There are quality residential facilities in this state such as Good Will Hinckley, Spurwink, Sweetser and Phoenix House to name a few. These facilities provide a supportive environment to help kids redirect their energies towards school, sports, developing meaningful relationships with others and healthy self-esteem. This helps reduce their vulnerability to negative influences. Kids in trouble deserve this chance. If we don't invest now in these children by providing supportive environments, we'll invest much more later to incarcerate them.

Bill Lord

China Village

Bookmark and share this story: