Voices From Within
By Gordon Perry
Hello & Welcome folks to our new interactive feature called Voices From Within. My name is Gordon, your voice and friend from the inside. I designed this to give people impacted by thesystem simple practical, low-barrier ways to connect, learn, and reduce harm. I did add a little teaser from the PBS Frontline Solitary Nation documentaries from 2014 & 2019 showing me in the old M.S.P. segregation unit. This is for those of you who may not be familiar with this important part of M.D.O.C. history, and how far the M.D.O.C. has come. There was a time when rehabilitation related programing or support avenues at M.S.P. were unheard of. Thankfully M.P.A.C. has been a leader for prison advocacy in ME, and has helped push the M.D.O.C. into what it has transformed into today.The M.D.O.C. is now a leader throughout the entire country in unique & innovative prison reform practices. More on that later, for now let me focus on the programs we are implementing 😀.
Why this feature exists
People inside and their families have felt the negative effects of the system for far too long. Voices From Within aims to help minimize this by making a meaningful positive impact on the people participating in these different programs. These programs focus on education, harm reduction, and building practical support networks, and the work M.P.A.C. has pushed for and continues to support so this important work is able to continue. My hope is that my persistence, dedication, and hard work will successfully help individuals do this effectively.
A personal note
I grew up in a broken system that offered almost zero help from when I was just a child touring the youth center facilities to the adult prison system. Roughly a decade ago things started changing for the better in ME when restorative practices and ways of being started being explored and implemented. Since that time the M.D.O.C. did a 180° turn changing into the M.M.O.C.. A new styled system utilizing restorative programming along with medicines to treatmental health related issues like ADHD/ADD and SUD to name a few. These tools finally started reaching people like myself who desperately needed them to function like a normal human being. That change transformed my life like I never imagined possible. I recognize and appreciate all of this and now I want to pay it forward.
Thank you for checking out Voices From Within. Give these programs a chance to grow on you, use what you learn, and pass it on. Your attention, questions, support and voice help change lives.
Introducing Community Pulse!
Community Pulse is a new signature section of Voices From Within, created to engage people OUTSIDE the prison walls in the real conversations Maine needs to have about justice reform. Each month, we release a focused, one-topic opinion poll designed by Gordon Editor of “Voices From Within” section on MPAC’s website. This avenue for highlighting major issues by those still inside like Gordon help MPAC and partner groups fighting for: Parole4ME, a Corrections Ombudsman, CleanSlate4ME, fixing the public defender crisis, and more teach people about the system.
A Voice From Within Reaching Maine’s Communities, One Poll at a Time
Community Pulse is a new signature section of Voices From Within, created to engage people OUTSIDE the prison walls in the real conversations Maine needs to have about justice reform. Each month, we release a focused, one-topic opinion poll designed by Gordon Editor of “Voices From Within” section on MPAC’s website. This avenue for highlighting major issues by those still inside like Gordon help MPAC and partner groups fighting for: Parole4ME, a Corrections Ombudsman, CleanSlate4ME, fixing the public defender crisis, and more teach people about the system.
No noise. No politics. Just truth, clarity, and the pulse of real Mainers.
⚡️ WHAT COMMUNITY - PULSE - IS HERE TO DO
➮ Gather Real Data That Builds the Reform Movement
Community Pulse polls help measure what Mainers actually think about the key efforts shaping the future of our Criminal Justice system. Every poll gives us critical insight into issues like:
🔥 Support for Parole4ME and second chances
Whether Mainers want a Corrections Ombudsman
🧹 Backing for CleanSlate4ME (LD1911)
⚖️ Views on sentencing fairness and young-adult rehabilitation
💰 Awareness of incarceration costs
👥 Support for fixing the public defender crisis
This data becomes fuel. Fuel for MPAC messaging. Fuel for legislative testimony. Fuel for public conversations that move the needle forward. When you know where people stand, you know where to push.
➮ Track What People “Know” About the System & “What They Don’t”
Let’s say what we know so of most people & cases: most people care about public safety, but have zero idea how Maine’s justice system truly works. That’s not their fault that nobody ever told them the truth, or that they were not impacted by the system in a way that made them start conversations like these, that can lead to impactful change we need in the Criminl Justice System.
Community Pulse exposes the gaps and clears up the myths by revealing whether Mainers:
🟦 Know Maine abolished parole
🟩 Understand why an Ombudsman matters
🟥 Realize Clean Slate keeps records visible to police
🟨 Know incarceration costs taxpayers more than college
🟧 Believe rehabilitation can outperform punishment
🟫 Recognize the severity of the public defender crisis
When we know what the public knows — and what they don’t — we tailor education and outreach that actually hits home.
🔥 HOW “COMMUNITY PULSE” WORKS
Each month, Gordon builds a single-topic opinion poll centered on reforms at the front line of MPAC’s work.
Each poll is:
📝 Short and simple
🎯 Focused on one issue
📣 Made for public sharing
🧭 A guiding tool for justice-reform outreach
Polls are shared through:
MPAC members
Civic & community groups
Faith communities
Colleges & students
Families touched by the justice system
Social justice partners across Maine
Every completed poll strengthens the reform movement’s reach and sharpens our message
🌟 THE BIGGER GOAL
Community Pulse exists to spark honest conversations that help Mainers learn the truth and become allies for long-overdue justice reforms. Maine is ahead of most states in corrections innovation, but miles behind in transparency, parole, and keeping up with national expansion of prison reforms. There’s a disconnect between what happens here, and what people think happens out there. And that disconnect has consequences.
Community Pulse helps close that gap by:
🔎 Revealing what Mainers believe
📚 Providing real information they’ve never had
❤️ Humanizing the system’s impact
🔥 Building support for smarter, safer reforms
Strengthening efforts like Parole4ME, Ombudsman4ME & CleanSlate4ME, Humane Prison initiatives & much more!
🤝 Bringing new allies into the fight for true public safety
This is how you turn conversations into awareness... awareness into understanding... and understanding into support for real, lasting change.
✨ CLOSING LINE
When people’s voices are finally heard & not ignored, or filtered it starts the real conversations that can lead to real practical change we need in & outside the Criminal Justice System. Community Pulse is how we get there, one question at a time.
Thank you for checking out this section. We hope you educate others so they may learn and start conversations to effect positive impactful change throughout the system as we know it!