Director’s Update: December 2025

Written By Joseph Jackson

  • Operations:  November operations are on track. 

  • MPAC: Board consists of 6 members, Co-Chair Ryun Anderson, Co-Chair Carla Hunt, Secretary Julian Rowand, board members Craig Williams, Rosalani Moore and Thraza Rosie Hylton. 

  • MPAC currently has a staff size 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 consultant Jeff Evangelos to support clemency and habeas corpus applications. Jeff's clinical trial failed and his prognosis is not good! Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jeff.

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

  • MPAC has 12 volunteers. Lee Urban, Doug Dunbar, Jon Courtney, Jamie Peloquin, Leslie Manning, Olivia Hochstadt, Lani Graham, Adriane Herman, Nicole Lund, Sarah Johnson,, 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 meet weekly to ensure we are in alignment.  

  • MPAC- Community facilitators will support community volunteers after it became clear that we needed a structure for volunteers.

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

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

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

  • MPAC - Legislative Strategy Meeting 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. 

  • November MPAC Strategy Meeting - MPAC Executive Director facilitated the meeting. Cuba attended remotely. Henry Guay and Chad Williams attended. Henry spent 30 plus years inside. Chad spent 17 plus! The conversation centered around the poor conditions in Androscoggin County Jail. Members left with the task to discover who was on the board of visitors for ACJ. 

  • MDOC - A significant amount of synthetic drugs were smuggled into the prison. There were reports of overdoses throughout the facility. The facility was placed on lockdown and searched. The lockdowns caused disruptions to normal prison operations.

  • MDOC - MPAC, Reentry Sisters, and MDOC are working in collaboration to develop an FAQ workshop for SCCP. The workshop will initially be held for the women at MCC, but the objective is to offer it in some form facility wide.

  • MDOC - residents eligible for SCCP are permitted internet access and email accounts for reentry support.

  • MDOC - MPAC ED and the Deputy Commissioner met and continued our discussion about MDOC'S rollout of the tech fee. There continue to be complaints of the fee being deducted from residents accounts who are not earning income, which is in contradiction to the legislative language.

  • MDOC - MPAC ED and Deputy Commissioner Cantillo met and discussed an element of the tech fee rollout where a tech fee had been deducted from the president of the MSP-NAACP in his role as officer of a civic group. We argued that officers of civic groups should not be charged for these volunteer roles.

  • MDOC - MPAC has agreed to support MDOC, MDOL, and UMA on the Jobs For the Future initiative. An initiative that will ultimately reduce barriers to employment for system impacted people.

  • MDOC - MPAC received notification of a working group report written by MDOC on Earned Time. We were caught by surprise as no meeting of the work group was actually convened. In addition, we believe the report should have focused on the viability of earned time. 

  • MDOC - MCC- MPAC Staff continues to advocate directly with Deputy Warden Chris Arbour and Warden Ben Beal about issues raised by incarcerated women. 

  • MDOC - MCC - Antonio Jackson has been cleared to meet with the men at MCC monthly via zoom. 

  • MCC Longtimers - Daria and Leslie facilitate monthly meetings with the women on the hill and women in the re-entry center.

  • 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- has resumed meetings every two weeks to discuss legislative strategy.

  • Longcreek- Andre provided an update on the facility, noting 16 residents with only 2 in the earned living unit. He mentioned a recent incident in the gym where a fight broke out among residents. Despite this, Andre reported high engagement levels among residents, including participation in a Thanksgiving meal that was well-received. He also discussed his role in supporting residents during court appearances and classifications, as well as his efforts to help residents secure jobs and manage transportation issues. Additionally, Andre shared that he organized a birthday celebration for a resident named Dom and uses social media to engage with residents.

  • MSP - The MSP-NAACP is proposing Rachel Talbot Ross serve as their community liaison.

  • MSP - The 400 Unit G-pod now has computer access capability. The report is all the pods in the Unit are computer accessible.

  • MSP - held a family day at the facility. 

  • MSP - admin approved Santanu and Gordon permission to attend a parole workshop.

  • No Penobscot county jail - jail diversion program is being proposed. The group is taking steps and organizing around this issue.

Projects:

  • Paco's Place- Androscoggin Bank has agreed to our equity partnerships deal on Charles Jordan.

  • MPAC Clemency and Appeals project - Jeff continues to support incarcerated individuals redress and review for early release.

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

  • Reentry Support- MPAC supported 8 individuals in reentry transition for the month of October. We supported a family with a celebration of life.

  • Gallery Exhibit Project: Inside Vision- MPAC exhibition at the Francis Hotel is up(Compliments of Adriane Herman and her intern Ivy). Go check it out!

  • Gallery Exhibit Project: Inside Vision - lithograph workshops starting at the Reentry Center, Adriane has a professional lithographer visiting. 

  • Gallery Exhibit Project: Inside Vision-  monthly film canceled due to lockdown.

  • Mainecare- our project with Mainecare is complete. We are in talks to survey youth in 2026!

  • Bennen Center- we will continue to collaborate on their survey of the MDOC

  • Reentry Sisters- care packages for the women. New source for clothing. People are bringing Linda clothing. Small grant for emergency funding. The storage unit will have bags for people who are leaving in Dec. A lot more cooperation from the people at the reentry center. Hoping more improvements from the hill.

Communications: 

  • MPAC - Daria Cullen is our communications lead. 

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

  • Google Group: We have restructured our platform and have consolidated updates in a newsletter posted once a week.

  • Webpage: Pathways to Promise page is live.

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

  • Webpage - new weekly blog from Gordon Perry

  • Giving Tuesday - donation!

  • Webpage-  MPAC's fall fundraiser is in full swing. Our goal of $100,000 in 90 days.

  • Webpage - Additional resources are being added to the page. The How to Write Effective Testimony guide was added to the legislative action page, and a “Trans Support” option was included in the Contact Us dropdown. The News and Events pages were also updated for September.

  • MPAC - new YouTube channel MPAC YouTube channel 

Public engagement 

  • On-track.

  • MPAC- participate on a panel on voting with the Sentencing Project. Over 300 in attendance.


Donors/ funders:

  • Grant team meets weekly. 

  • Donate Button Zeffy platform 

  • individual donation Zeffy - 610.00 in

donations for September 

  • MPAC- 3000.00 individual donation 

  • MPAC- Onion Foundation 40000.00 over 24 months

  • MPAC- JustFundUs 15000

  • MPAC - Clean Slate Campaign 100000.00 over 24 months

  • MPAC - Peter Alfond Foundation- 32772.00 awarded over 24 months

  • MPAC- Peter Alfond Conference- Joseph, Cuba, and Dre attending!

  • 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-  our hold over bills (Parole, Clean Slate, Omsbudman) will be heard in January. Please start your letter of support.

  • Legislative Committee - issue around Mainers losing their motor vehicles.

  • Legislative Committee - heard and discussed Frank Zarro proposal for an independent public defense program.

  • Legislative Update- Parole4ME- meets every other 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 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, Maine Clean Slate Coalition.

Joseph Jackson https://maineprisoneradvocacy.org
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Director’s Update: January 2026
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Director’s Update: November 2025