Escaped prisoner found in Friendship home died from self-inflicted gunshot wound to head
FRIENDSHIP, Maine — The body found Sunday morning at a home in Friendship has been identified as escaped prisoner Brian Floyd who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Hospice program provides care, comfort for Maine’s aging prison population
WARREN, Maine — Santanu Basu has been a resident of Maine State Prison for a long time already, and has a lot more time to go before he’s released.
Bar to hold disciplinary hearing on Hancock County prosecutor
ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, which governs the professional conduct of licensed attorneys in the state, has decided to pursue a prosecutorial misconduct complaint against Assistant Hancock County District Attorney Mary Kellett.
Maine Department of Corrections, ACLU of Maine submit testimony to hearing on solitary confinement
The Maine Department of Corrections and the ACLU of Maine submitted testimony to a congressional committee that held a hearing Tuesday about reassessing the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons.
Less restriction equals less violence at Maine State Prison
WARREN, Maine — A change implemented last year in the way the Maine State Prison deals with violent and disruptive inmates is paying off, both financially and behaviorally, Department of Corrections officials say.
ACLU of Maine sues guards at Portland jail alleging beating of illegal immigrant
PORTLAND, Maine — The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine Foundation on Tuesday filed an excessive force lawsuit in U.S. District Court against two Cumberland County Jail guards on behalf of a man who has been deported.
VIDEO: Cumberland County guards allegedly beat inmate
The ACLU of Maine says two Cumberland County Jail guards repeatedly punched Wilmer Recinos in the chest and pepper-sprayed him in the face.
Our View: Maine’s strip search standard the right one
A New Jersey man was arrested in error for failure to pay a fine and was then subjected to a humiliating series of invasive searches that included being asked to lift his genitals and cough while squatting
Maine inmate likely died from the flu at infected prison, agency says
WARREN, Maine — A prison inmate in Warren likely died last year from the flu, a disease that most prisoners are not given vaccinations for, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Jail officials told to heed state strip-search limits
Maine's rule is more restrictive than the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling allowing the searches with minor offenses.
Maine Voices: Solitary confinement is not good for prison inmates — or anyone else
And God said, “It is not good for a man to be alone.” Genesis 2 teaches us that human beings are meant to live in community with others. Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures all affirm that human beings have inherent God-given dignity and that we all need each other physically, mentally and spiritually.
Trials set in deaths of two Maine prison inmates
ROCKLAND, Maine — Trial dates were determined Tuesday for separate cases involving the deaths of two Maine State Prison inmates.
The Abuse of Solitary Confinement
In the past three decades, solitary confinement has been embraced by the vast majority of states to control violence and impose discipline.
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.
Prisons Rethink Isolation, Saving Money, Lives and Sanity
PARCHMAN, Miss. — The heat was suffocating, and the inmates locked alone in cells in Unit 32, the state’s super-maximum-security prison, wiped away sweat as they lay on concrete slab beds.
74-year-old prisoner dies of undisclosed illness
WARREN, Maine — A 74-year-old inmate from the Maine State Prison who was hospitalized for an undisclosed illness on Feb. 28 has died, according to the Maine Department of Corrections.