The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the state of Maine, alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for allegedly unnecessarily segregating children with behavioral health disabilities in hospitals, residential facilities, and a juvenile detention center.
“The Civil Rights Division is committed to ensuring that people with disabilities can get the services they need to remain at home with their families and loved ones, in their communities.”
The lawsuit stems from an investigation that began following complaints that Maine was not administering behavioral health services in compliance with requirements under the ADA that were reinforced by the Supreme Court’s 1999 decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which mandated public entities provide services in the least restrictive setting possible.
According to the DOJ’s complaint, the state has failed to adequately provide community-based services.
Some children are held in the Long Creek Youth Development Center, a juvenile detention facility that the DOJ called a “de facto psychiatric hospital.”
The letter alleged that families often wait hundreds of days for community-based services, and in the meantime, law enforcement or hospital emergency rooms become the default response to behavioral health crises.
The letter accused Maine of maintaining long waitlists for essential services, including mobile crisis units, therapeutic foster care, and intensive home-based care. The DOJ asserts that the state has not adequately addressed these issues despite recognizing them for years, leading to further segregation and harm to children and families.
The lawsuit calls for Maine to overhaul its behavioral health service system to ensure that children receive appropriate services in their homes and communities, in compliance with the ADA.
Mills’s office directed The Epoch Times to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services for comment on the lawsuit.
Lindsay Hammes, a spokesperson for the department, said in a statement to The Epoch Times that the agency agrees with the DOJ that the state has an obligation to protect children with behavioral health disabilities.
Hammes said that this view has been the focus of the governor and state legislature for the past six years, as they work to provide “significant new investments” to strengthen these services. Hammes said the health agency has collaborated with the DOJ to address the allegations first raised in 2022.
“We are deeply disappointed that the U.S. DOJ has decided to sue the State rather than continue our collaborative, good-faith effort to strengthen the delivery of children’s behavioral health services,” Hammes said in the emailed statement. “The State of Maine will vigorously defend itself and, throughout the litigation, will continue to work hard to strengthen the delivery of what we all agree are vital services.”
The Maine Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
