Director’s Update: July 2025

Written By Daria Rosario

  • Operations for June and July are on track. 

  • MPAC Board consists of 7 members, Co-Chair Ryun Anderson, Co-Chair Carla Hunt, Executive Secretary Julian Rowand, board members Jadirah Ortiz, Craig Williams, Rosalani Moore, and Thraza Rosie Hylton. 

  • MPAC currently has a staff of 12 individuals. Joseph Jackson, Jan Collins, Peter Lehman, Joelle Jackson, Darlene George, Brandon Brown, Andre Hicks, Antonio Jackson, Linda Small, Sammy Basu, Daria Cullen, and Kathy Elliot

  • MPAC contracted Jeff Evangelos to support clemency and habeas corpus applications.

  • MPAC has contracted incarcerated resident Gordon Perry to support the website and communication team.

  • MPAC has 12 volunteers. Doug Dunbar, Jon Courtney, Jamie Peloquin, Leslie Manning, Tatum Rosenberg, Olivia Hochstadt, Lani Graham, Adriane Herman, Nicole Lund, Sarah Johnson, Ann Beaudry, Craig McEwen, Al Cleveland, and Luca Mellon. Special thanks for their work and dedication. 

  • MPAC Mission, Value, and Purpose statements:

    Our Mission is to support and advocate for Maine’s incarcerated citizens, their families and friends.

    Our Purpose is to reduce Maine’s use of incarceration by advocating for a criminal legal system that is ethical, humane and restorative.  

    Our Vision is of a justice system that is restorative. It supports humanity in every person, and reflects and creates transformation and accountability.

  • MPAC staff and volunteers meet as a full team weekly to update and resolve tensions.

  • MPAC staff members are in regular communications with incarcerated residents and formerly incarcerated individuals.

  • MPAC staff meet in-person with incarcerated residents at MSP, Bolduc, MCC, and SMWRC. 

  • MPAC Strategy Meeting is the second Saturday of each month from 10-12.

  • MPAC Legislative Strategy Meeting is every Tuesday at 5:30 pm. 

  • Arts Programming Team meets weekly Thursday mornings at 8:00am.

  • MPAC Website Committee meets bi-weekly, Wednesday at 5:00 pm

  • MPAC Development and Communications Committee meets Mondays every other week at 8:00 am.

  • MPAC grant committee meets weekly on Tuesday.

  • MPAC Ways of Working committee meets monthly.

  • MPAC staff continues to support formerly incarcerated individuals in reentry, with transport, peer to peer support. One on one and in group settings.

On-going: Advocacy, correspondence, and Direct Dialogue. 

  • June MPAC Strategy Meeting- Meeting went well. Courtney Pladsen was our spotlighted speaker for the Department of Health and Human Services regarding future MaineCare waivers for people reentering their community. 19 people attended the strategy meeting. 

  • July MPAC Strategy Meeting- canceled for organizational time off.

  • MDOC- Joseph met with Deputy Commissioner Cantillo to tour the ACU at MSP. The population was up due to county jail placements for safe keeping. The seg unit held 16 individuals who complained of being man-handled.

  • MDOC- The law Library (Westlaw) has been added to the tablets, seemingly increasing access. Residents complain there are many flaws in the rollout. They failed to include how-to instructions for court filings.

  • MDOC- the MDOC is working to increase access to WIFI in all prison cells.

  • MDOC- Joseph met with Deputy Commissioner Cantillo to discuss complaints about prison facilities not following disciplinary policies. Residents accused of violating policies are held accountable before receiving notification of the allegations.

  • MDOC- Joseph met with Deputy Commissioner Cantillo to advocate for 5 incarcerated residents to be seen by medical staff for various health issues.

  • MDOC- Joseph met with Deputy Commissioner Cantillo to discuss residents' medical sick call slips stating individuals have been ‘seen’ even though residents say they haven't been seen.

  • MDOC- Joseph met with Deputy Commissioner Cantillo to discuss compassionate release for a resident diagnosed with chronic heart disease. His application is being processed.

  • MDOC- Joseph met with Deputy Commissioner Cantillo to discuss a complaint that residents aren't being allowed to become organ donors. The Deputy Commissioner is looking into this.

  • MDOC- Joseph met with Deputy Commissioner Cantillo to discuss an MPAC staff member's volunteer status being revoked. Deputy Commissioner acknowledges staff member revocation didn't have anything to do with his conduct inside prison facilities.

  • MDOC- Bruce Noddin has been hired to lead reentry Support for the department. He will be the point of contact for MPAC’S Reentry programming.

  • MCC- MPAC Staff met with Deputy Warden Chris Arbour and Warden Ben Beal about issues raised by incarcerated women. DW Arbour has asked that we bring our concerns to him as soon as possible. 

  • MCC Longtimers- MPAC has contracted women at MCC to print MPAC T-shirts and Brochures for tabling. The t-shirts have the slogans “No More Solitary” and Bring Back Parole”. 

  • MCC Longtimers- MPAC has contracted women at MCC to create MPAC Keychains for tabling.

  • MCC Longtimers- Darlene highlighted the need for training on the grievance procedure. Brandon is spearheading the creation of a how-to manual.

  • MCC Longtimers- MPAC ED and Coordinator Linda Small were speakers at the Juneteenth event Darlene organized.

  • MCC Longtimers- The dentist is just pulling teeth, not filling them. Unless six or more teeth are pulled, you cannot get a soft diet.

  • MCC Longtimers- Chris Arbor and others have been walking through. They are promising new furniture for the upper and lower day rooms. Everyone is supposed to be getting new lockers and beds.

  • MCC Longtimers- Darlene promoted and organized residents to attend Maine Inside Out Broken Clock performance.

  • MCC Reentry Center- Linda working with the Reentry Center pre-release folks to help people with housing on the outside. She provides women with backpacks containing items that give women a headstart as they return to the community.

  • Advocacy Coalition- paused for the summer.

  • Longcreek- Andre updates about Long Creek, noted a decrease in detained youth and an increase in female residents. Andre also noted Longcreek has an Earned Living Unit.

  • Longcreek- MPAC is supporting 30 youth in reentry. There is weekly engagement with youth one-on-one or in groups. Youth are provided food, shoes, and haircuts. They are supported with seeking employment (help with filling out applications). Andre is speaking on behalf of youth during court hearings.

  • Longcreek- the son of a formerly incarcerated man who was murdered last year (officials used his DNA to determine identity) escaped. He turned himself in! There was no public acknowledgement of the trauma he's navigating.

  • Longcreek- Joseph and Andre are planning a second outdoor retreat with Youth in September.

  • MSP- the men in the Earned Living Unit were allowed to have a day with their families inside the facility. They were able to interact with their families freely over barbecue the men prepared. The men reported they have not seen anything like this in their time at the facility.

  • MSP- MPAC ED supported Julian's request to attend and participate in the MSP-NAACP Juneteenth event after initially being denied. MPAC  coordinated the catering for the event.

  • MSP- Healthcare advisory committee meetings have resumed. Sammy attends!

  • MSP- MPAC is reviewing the targeting of the MSP-NAACP leaders by staff. Foster and Dan have been written up for technical violations after advocating for incarcerated individuals.

  • MSP- MPAC and Maineworks did a joint presentation about resources available for residents after release.

  • MSP- Samny promoted and organized residents to attend Maine Inside Out Broken Clock performance. 

  • No Penobscot county jail- gearing up to challenge the proposal to build a new jail. The group meets every Sunday at 4p by Zoom. Oped

  • Cumberland County jail- MPAC is in discussion with no ICE, and other orgs to develop a strategy around ICE detentions.

Projects:

  • Paco's Place- MPAC has applied for a loan from the Sewell Foundation to close on the house. Sewell's process will take a month. The owner has hired a lawyer to oversee closing and requested more time to clean out the basement.

  • Paco's Place- MPAC needs the blueprints to be 90 percent complete before submitting to Maine Housing. Platform Associates are a little behind schedule and need a few more weeks to complete. They will tour Paco's Place one last time next Tuesday.

  • Paco's Place- the planning committee meets every two weeks. We have a verbal agreement with Maineworks as an employment resource, and Recovery Connections of Maine to cover Paco's Place under their license with the State.

  • Board/Staff project- The board and staff are working to develop a theory of change. The group responded to 3 questions. Who do we do the work for? What are we doing? How do we know we're doing it right?

  • MPAC Clemency project- Jeff has supported three individuals to move their challenges of their convictions forward. He supported one resident to find legal representation. In another case the judge accepted the residents claims and ruled the case can move forward.

  • Outdoor Retreat- MPAC had two more outdoor excursions with formerly incarcerated individuals from Recovery Housing of Maine. We transported men to the lake, played in the water and grilled burgers.

  • Guide for Filing Grievances- MPAC has initiated a project to consolidate information on how to file grievances properly.

  • Reentry Support- MPAC supported 16 people in reentry transition for the months of June and July. We supported 3 families with celebrations of life since last report.

  • Gallery Exhibit Project: Inside Vision- exhibition at the Francis Hotel for their holiday crafts fair & art exhibit Oct-Dec. Call for resident Art is in place now until 9/1.

  • MPAC- partnered with Peter Bruun to support the Puddle Dock art festival. We tabled, participated on a panel and displayed the work of incarcerated artists. 

  • Mainecare- MPAC held our first group at York County Jail! Each resident will receive a 100 dollar stipend for participation. Will hold subsequent groups at MCC Reentry Center, Franklin County Jail, and Maine State Prison.

  • Project Freewill- MPAC’S ED participated in the Art Festival.

Communications:

  • MPAC: Daria Cullen is our communications lead. 

  • Website: MPAC Volunteer Jamie Peloquin leads our Website design.

  • Google Group: MPAC has received complaints about the overwhelming number of emails from mainers-against-solitary-confinement+msgappr@googlegroups.com. We have restructured our platform to only allow post from administrators. Which will take place once a week.

  • Santanu created an MPAC slideshow for promotion at MSP.

  • Webpage: Pathways to Promise page about to go live.

  • Daria continues to update our website, https://www.maineprisoneradvocacy.org/

  • Engagement: Gordon is really passionate and has new ideas for the website and our social media.

  • MPAC: new YouTube channel MPAC YouTube channel 

Public engagement 

  • On-track.

Donors/ funders:

  • Grant team meets weekly. 

  • Donate Button Zeffy platform 

  • Individual donation Zeffy - 540 in donations for June and July

  • MPAC- Onion Foundation  2000

  • MPAC- Maine Initiatives 5000

  • MPAC- United Way 70

  • MPAC- invited to apply Peter Alfond 

  • MPAC- invited to apply for Clean Slate Campaign 

  • MPAC- Maine Philanthropy Center Conference application submitted 

  • MPAC- tabled at orange bike spotlight 

  • MPAC- planning house party fundraisers for the month of October

  • Become A Sustainer campaign- A sustainer is a Donor or Supporter who commits to making monthly or yearly donations of time or money to the organization. Sustainers play a crucial role in providing a stable and predictable source of income for us by allowing us to plan and execute long-term initiatives with greater confidence.

Legislative: 

  • Assistant Director Jan Collins leads!

  • Legislative Committee Meetings- meets Tuesdays at 5:30pm each week.

  • Legislative- entering strategy and public education phase

  • Legislative Committee-  Clean Slate Campaign for record sealing.

  • Legislative Committee- develop educational flyers for tabling.

  • Legislative Update- Parole4ME meets every Wednesday at 6:00pm over zoom. 

  • Legislative Update- MPAC’S 2025 Legislative Tracker

Strategic Partnerships: ongoing- MaineTransnet, GLADD, Portland Outright, MIO, MYJ, Maine Law School, Disability Rights, Maine Equal Justice, ACLU, Muskie, Recovery Connections, Recovery Housing, JJAG, Women’s League of Voters, MPRN, MPDA, MSP-NAACP, Colby College, Bates College, UMA, RJIM, Maine Immigrants, Maine Family Planning, Maine Humanities Council, FAMM (Families for Justice Reform).

New Partners- Pubic Health Committee for Maine Medical Association, Knox-Waldo Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), Maine Clean Slate,  Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women. No Penobscot County Jail Expansion, ME-RAP, Southern Maine SURJ(Standing Up for Racial Justice), Amistad, Maine CDC, Vera Institute, Curative, Augusta Recovery Center, Reform Alliance, College Guild, Project Home, Maine Health Equity Foundation, Orange Bike Brewing Company, Friends of LongCreek, Groundwater Institute, Volunteers of America, Brennan Center, Maine Arts Commission.

Daria Rosario
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Director’s Update: June 2025