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Maine Jail Raises Pigs to Feed Prisoners, Expands Organic Farm

Article • April 9, 2015 • from PLN April, 2015

Filed under: Prison Labor

Maine Jail Raises Pigs to Feed Prisoners, Expands Organic Farm by Maine Jail Raises Pigs to Feed Prisoners, Expands Organic Farm The slop at the Somerset County Jail in East Madison, Maine is quite popular, at least among the jail’s porcine residents. To help feed the facility’s prisoners and cultivate …

Prosecutors Breaking Bad

Article • November 8, 2014 • from PLN November, 2014

Filed under: Attorney Misconduct, Prosecutors, Wrongful Conviction, Criminal Procedure

Prosecutors Breaking Bad by Prosecutors Breaking Bad The following are various cases in which prosecutors have reportedly engaged in misconduct, ethical violations or criminal behavior, which evidence the need for effective solutions to the persistent problem of prosecutorial abuses. California In 2012, the California Supreme Court overturned the death sentence …

No Death Penalty for Maine Prisoner

Article • April 15, 2014 • from PLN April, 2014

Filed under: Death Penalty

No Death Penalty for Maine Prisoner by Lance Tapley In 2008, within a supposedly high-security prison in the giant federal correctional complex in Florence, Colorado, Gary Watland, a “boarder” from Maine, murdered another prisoner, white supremacist Mark Baker. After five and a half years – and after, probably, millions in …

A Rare Look Inside the Maine State Prison's "Supermax"

Article • March 15, 2014 • from PLN March, 2014

Filed under: Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement

A Rare Look Inside the Maine State Prison's "Supermax" by Lance Tapley An almost-clean version of hell by Lance Tapley There was a stain of what looked like blood on the floor of the otherwise shiny-clean, empty Mental Health Unit isolation cell. “It’s Kool-Aid,” said my minder, a deputy warden. …

Weinstein v. Maine, Corizon, ME, Settlement, Wrongful Death - Beating, 2014

Brief • February 26, 2014

Filed under: Sex Offenders (Discrimination), Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death)

Weinstein v. Maine, Corizon, ME, Settlement, Wrongful Death - Beating, 2014 RELEASE AND INDEMNITY AGREEMENT KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS: For payment of the sum of one hundred thousand. dollars ($100,000.00), and other valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, the undersigned, acting both in …

Hayes v. Two Bridges Regional Jail, ME, Complaint, Jail Assault, 2013

Brief • July 13, 2013

Filed under: Staff-Prisoner Assault, Jail Misconduct, Jail Specific

Hayes v. Two Bridges Regional Jail, ME, Complaint, Jail Assault, 2013 Case 2:13-cv-00288-NT Document 2-2 Filed 07/31/13 Page 1 of 10 STATE OF MAINE LINCOLN, ss SUPERIOR COURT WISCASSET PageID #: 6 UIr,e^^ MY 3 0 1 2O CIVIL ACTION DOCKET NO. CV-13- AMANDA HAYES, Plainti ff V. COMPLAINT TWO …

Maine Prisoner’s Contraband Conviction Vacated

Article • May 15, 2013 • from PLN May, 2013

Filed under: Crime/Demographics, Criminal Prosecution, Witnesses

Maine Prisoner’s Contraband Conviction Vacated by On May 29, 2012, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court reversed a prisoner’s conviction for trafficking in contraband. The Court found it was proper for the trial court to allow a guard to testify about details not contained in her written report of the incident, …

Maine Supreme Judicial Court Affirms Sheriff’s Entitlement to Discretionary Function Immunity

Article • May 15, 2013

Filed under: Summary Judgment, Guards/Staff, Employee Litigation

Maine Supreme Judicial Court Affirms Sheriff’s Entitlement to Discretionary Function Immunity by In December 2011, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the Superior Court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Washington County Sheriff Donald Smith on the ground that Smith was entitled to discretionary function immunity pursuant to the …

Report Critical of Maine DOC's Medical Contractors

Article • April 15, 2013

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Contractor Misconduct

Report Critical of Maine DOC's Medical Contractors by Joe Watson Report Critical of Maine DOC’s Medical Contractors by Joe Watson For nine years, Corizon had a lucrative monopoly on prison healthcare in Maine. But after a November 2011 state agency review cited persistent “deficiencies,” the company appears headed for a …

Maine Supreme Judicial Court: PUC Cannot Regulate Prisoner Phone Rates

Article • March 15, 2013

Filed under: Telephones, Telephone Rates

Maine Supreme Judicial Court: PUC Cannot Regulate Prisoner Phone Rates by On April 21, 2009, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine decided that the telephone use rates the Maine Department of Corrections (DOC) charges state prisoners was not subject to regulation by the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC). A complaint …

Prison Reforms Under Maine’s New DOC Commissioner

Article • March 15, 2013 • from PLN March, 2013

Filed under: Private Contractors, Rehabilitation/Recidivism, Probation, Mental Health, Juvenile Prisons

Prison Reforms Under Maine’s New DOC Commissioner by Lance Tapley Several weeks after firing Maine State Prison warden Patricia Barnhart on January 10, 2013, and two years after taking over the Department of Corrections (DOC), Commissioner Joseph Ponte appears determined to continue – and ramp up – his forceful program …

Solitary Confinement: Bad for Chimps, Okay for Humans?

Article • October 15, 2012 • from PLN October, 2012

Filed under: Control Units/SHU/Solitary Confinement, Federal Legislation

Solitary Confinement: Bad for Chimps, Okay for Humans? by Lance Tapley Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins is a key cosponsor of legislation that, among other provisions, would outlaw psychologically damaging solitary confinement for more than 500 chimpanzees caged for research in federally supported laboratories. In July 2012 the bill bipartisanly …

Bad behavior in state workplace costs taxpayers nearly $2m in settlements

Article • October 15, 2012

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, DOC/BOP misconduct, Settlements, Employee Litigation

Bad behavior in state workplace costs taxpayers nearly $2m in settlements by Naomi Schalit By: John Christie, Matt Drange and Naomi Schalit | December 19, 2012 One corrections officer spread a false rumor that the new female officer at the state prison in South Windham was a stripper. Another one …

First Circuit Holds that Delay in Treating HIV May Constitute Deliberate Indifference

Article • August 15, 2012 • from PLN August, 2012

Filed under: CMS, Medical, HIV/AIDS

First Circuit Holds that Delay in Treating HIV May Constitute Deliberate Indifference by The First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the grant of summary judgment to a physician assistant at the York County Jail (YCJ) in Maine, concluding that a material dispute existed as to whether the physician assistant acted …

Maine: Final Order of Protection Vacated where Prisoner Not Afforded Opportunity to be Heard

Article • May 15, 2012

Filed under: Presence at Hearing, Family, Family Law

Maine: Final Order of Protection Vacated where Prisoner Not Afforded Opportunity to be Heard by In December 2011, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court vacated a district court judgment granting an order of protection from abuse where the alleged abuser had advised the court that, because he was incarcerated, he would …

Maine Jailer Settles Federal Discrimination Suit

Article • May 15, 2012

Filed under: Retaliation against Staff, Guards/Staff, Employee Litigation, Disabled Employees

Maine Jailer Settles Federal Discrimination Suit by A former Maine jail guard accepted an undisclosed sum to settle his federal discrimination suit against his former employer. In March 2009, Hancock County Jail guard Brad Ewing suffered a back injury during a scuffle with a prisoner. Ewing was placed on medical …

Maine Prison Warden’s Purchase of State Property Voided

Article • March 15, 2012 • from PLN March, 2012

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Guard Misconduct, DOC/BOP misconduct, Government Misconduct

Maine Prison Warden’s Purchase of State Property Voided by Maine’s Attorney General has declared a real estate deal between the state and Maine State Prison Warden Patricia Barnhart and her partner, Sheehan Gallagher, void. The transaction involved three houses and about five acres of land near the prison. Barnhart was …

HUD Regulations Don't Justify Terminating Lifetime Sex Offender Registrant from Federally-Appointed Housing Program

Article • February 15, 2012

Filed under: Discrimination, Sex Offender Registration, Sex Offenders (Discrimination), Sex Offender Residence

HUD Regulations Don't Justify Terminating Lifetime Sex Offender Registrant from Federally-Appointed Housing Program by Richard Miller was convicted of a Washington State sex offense in 1996. In 2002, he applied for and was accepted into a Section 8 Housing Voucher Program in Massachusetts. In 2005, he moved to Maine and …

Reform Comes to Maine Supermax: New commissioner cuts population by more than half; prisoner rights advocates help in the reform

Article • September 15, 2011 • from PLN September, 2011

Filed under: Prisoner Privileges, Rehabilitation/Recidivism

Reform Comes to Maine Supermax: New commissioner cuts population by more than half; prisoner rights advocates help in the reform by Lance Tapley Less than three months into his job, Maine’s new corrections commissioner, Joseph Ponte, has begun to dramatically reform the Maine State Prison’s long-troubled solitary confinement “supermax” unit. …

Maine Supreme Judicial Court Reinstates Challenge to Maine SORNA

Article • July 15, 2011

Filed under: Discrimination, Sex Offender Registration, Guilty Pleas, Ex Post Facto, Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act

Maine Supreme Judicial Court Reinstates Challenge to Maine SORNA by Matthew Clarke By Matt Clarke The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has reversed the dismissal of a challenge to the Maine Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), 34-A M.R.S. §§ 11201-11256. John Doe is the pseudonym of a person convicted …