State House Notebook: Prison bill draws ire of coalition
Republican lawmakers from central Maine have proposed legislation that would allow the state to send Maine prisoners to correctional facilities in other states, drawing the ire of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition.
Maine Voices: Prison reform in America: Kicking the can farther down the road
When I began this journey over a year ago, advocating for reform of our prisons, I never dreamed that so arcane and bizarre a subject could become a source of amusement. Despite being a former legislator, I had forgotten the inherent lack of courage on the part of legislators, driving their propensity to tweak rather than replace or repair broken systems.
Autopsy finds pneumonia caused prisoner’s death
WARREN, Maine — Pneumonia killed a prisoner at the Bolduc Correctional Facility, according to an autopsy performed Tuesday.
Prison reform: A smart way for states to save money and lives
With nearly all 50 states facing budget deficits, it's time to end business as usual in state capitols and for legislators to think and act with courage and creativity.
Advocacy group to commemorate inmate’s death
Victor Valdez died at the Maine State Prison a year ago.
Maine Department of Corrections: An Institutional Ghetto?
Coverup and circling the wagons may be the key to job security, but is it in the public interest?
Our View: Overuse of prison isolation issue that should not go away
Backers of a bill that would limit the use of solitary confinement in Maine prisons did not get most of what they wanted this legislative session.
Maine solitary confinement bill stalls
House legislators prefer a policy review over a plan to change the treatment of mentally ill prisoners.
Survivors
President Obama has declared that “We have banned torture without exception.” However, some would take exception to this claim. The practice of isolating a prisoner in solitary confinement for extended periods of time causes severe sensory deprivation and has been denounced as torture by the United Nations. But tens of thousands of inmates are locked up in solitary confinement in American prisons today. And the number is rapidly growing. Often prisoners spend years – even decades – by themselves in a cell the size of a small bathroom. They don't see anyone. They don't talk to anyone. They don't touch anyone. What does this experience do to a person's mental state? Claire Schoen shows us what solitary confinement looks, sounds and feels like.