Introducing Community Pulse!
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!
