June 9, 2012 - M-PAC Statewide Strategy Meeting
Doors open: 9 am -  Meeting: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
IBEW Hall, 16 Old Winthrop Road, Manchester, ME (near Augusta center)
Welcome to everyone interested in assisting with M-PAC goals.
For more information please email M-PAC

 
The Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition (M-PAC) is comprised of Maine prisoners, their friends and families, victims of crime,
and others committed to ethical, positive, and
humane changes in Maine's prison system.
Welcome
News and Events
Also see Ongoing News for up-to-date news from M-PAC prisoners and advocates
M-PAC decries AG's ruling on  
Death of Victor Valdez
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        In the Spotlight...
AUGUSTA -- Prisoner advocates denounced the findings released Thursday of the Maine Attorney General’s Office which concluded that alleged abuse by Maine State Prison guards was not responsible for the November 2009 death of Victor Valdez of Portland.
    David Bidler, a spokesman for the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition (MPAC), said the statewide group would demand further investigation into the death of Valdez, who, according to many witness reports, was systematically abused by guards over a long period, and suffered from kidney disease that required dialysis treatments three days a week.
   Only after two months of public pressure by M-PAC and other prisoner advocates did the state Attorney General’s Office agree to investigate the death. . . .

  Read entire article... "M-PAC decries....
AG Exonerates Guards Lance Tapley:
M-PAC Logo by Lil Ed

Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition


Recent Deaths in Maine Prisons
This page was last updated: May 3, 2012
Federal investigation of inmate's death sought  Abigail Curtis:, Bangor Daily News
Village Soup, John Hale

Rev. Stan Moody on Prison Reform
Leslie Bridges, Morning Sentinel
M-PAC group demonstration at Augusta State House on November 17, 2010 to protest AG's findings in the death of prisoner Victor Valdez. Photo courtesy of Bangor Daily News.
For any technical problems with our website feel free to contact the Webmaster.
Prisoners as Commodities
Lance Tapley, The Portland Phoenix
LD 1095: For-profit corporate prisons (i.e. CCA)
"A very bad idea for Maine"
UPDATE : Bill carried over to 2012 and then defeated!
Private Prison Problems Bangor Daily News Editorial
M-PAC Requests U.S. DOJ Investigation
Prison Bill Draws Ire of Coalition
Portland Press Herald & Morning Sentinel
NAACP, others bristle after GOP Senator censors anti-private-prison testimony -
Words 'slavery,' 'racism' banned
Lance Tapley, The Portland Phoenix
Bill would ease path for private prison in Milo Marian McCue, The New Maine Times
Watch: Immigrants for Sale
(to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)
Milo Forum: The Myth of Jobs in Private Prison TownsME Peace, Justice & Environment Network
Private Prison in Maine Shenna Bellows,MCLU
Listen: Beaten Maine Prison Inmate Dies
Tom Porter interview with Judy Garvey, MPBN
Stephen Betts, Village Soup
The Death of Victor Valdez - First Reports
Fugitive being held in Maine prison dies
David Robinson, Portland Press Herald
Reducing Solitary Confinement
Reducing solitary confinement:
How Maine's corrections commissioner dropped supermax numbers by 70 percent . . . and became a national leader in prison reform (if anybody follows) Lance Tapley, The Portland Phoenix
Joseph Ponte, Commissioner of Maine Department of Corrections
Joseph Ponte
Commissioner,Maine Department of Corrections
22-year-old inmate dies in Kennebec Jail,
The Associated Press via BDN
Michael Chasse died on 11-3-11 
at NJ State Prison. Michael was transferred from Maine State Prison in Jan 2011.
In 2005, Lance Tapley featured Michael Chasse in, Torture in Maine Prisons
Michael Chasse courtesy of Chasse Family via BDN
Save the date
"Natural Causes Killed Victor"
a folk opera by George Swanson
October 26 & 27, 2012, St. Saviour's Church,
Bar Harbor
Privatized Prison Medical Care is Sick
Lance Tapley, The Portland Phoenix
M-PAC Declares Victory in Defeat of Private Prison Bill!
    Advocacy group hails defeat of private prison legislation
     George Tibbetts, Jr.,The Valley Voice

      Maine private prison bill headed to dead files
      Huffington Post

    Maine lawmakers kill private-prison bill
     Glenn Adams, Portland Press Herald

    Legislature rejects private prison plan
     The New Maine Times

    ACLU of Maine Applauds Vote Against Private Prisons
MDOC undermines re-entry with new public database
Andrew Benore, Knox Village Soup

Sex offender's suicide raises questions about treatment  Craig Crosby, Kennebeck Journal
(also see the sidebar with quotes by Stan Moody)
Company’s offer to buy, run state prisons meets with rejection:The rebuff by five of the 48 states that got the offer may signal prison privatization’s waning popularity,  Associated Press
George Swanson