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Augusta Planning Board Puts Brakes on Forensic Unit

Members of the Augusta planning board put the brakes on the LePage administration’s plan to build a new unit to house a group of forensic patients currently at the Riverview Psychiatric Center.

The only formal opposition to the proposal to build the 21-bed facility adjacent to Riverview was NAMI Maine, a group that advocates for those with mental illness. They say they can’t figure out whether the new facility is a hospital or a prison, but say it sounds like a prison.

“The proposed facility will be a locked unit that does not meet hospital level of care, that is what it is designed to be. Which is the equivalent of a correctional facility in our opinion,” says Aashley Malsbury of NAMI Maine. “NAMI Maine does not support creation of a rehabilitation facility that operates as a correctional facility.”

Members of the planning board were just as confused as to what the facility will be. They want to know whether the new facility will be licensed as a hospital, which is an allowed use in that area, or a correctional facility, which would need a waiver from the existing use restrictions.

They also want answers from the state at their Oct. 11 meeting on who will license the facility, what type of patents or inmates will be housed there and how the facility will be paid for.

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.