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Maine Governor Rakes in Private Prison Money, Shows Appreciation

Article • April 15, 2011 • from PLN April, 2011

Filed under: Private Prisons, Corrections Corporation of America/CoreCivic, Government Misconduct

Maine Governor Rakes in Private Prison Money, Shows Appreciation by Lance Tapley In Maine’s last gubernatorial campaign, the controversial Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest for-profit prison operator, spent $25,000 on behalf of Republican candidate Paul LePage, now Maine’s newly-elected governor. The money was given to the Republican …

Are Doctors Complicit in Prison Torture? The Maine Medical Community Looks at Solitary Confinement

Article • October 15, 2010 • from PLN October, 2010

Filed under: Private Prisons, CMS, Medical Misconduct, Guard Brutality/Beatings, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness)

Are Doctors Complicit in Prison Torture? The Maine Medical Community Looks at Solitary Confinement by Lance Tapley In the past few years an outcry has arisen over the involvement of military and CIA medical professionals and psychologists in torture, including psychologically destructive solitary confinement of “war on terror” detainees at …

Less Than Equal: State officials, including prejudiced human-rights commissioners, block Prisoner complaints

Article • March 15, 2010 • from PLN March, 2010

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Guard Misconduct, DOC/BOP misconduct, Government Misconduct, Prosecutor/Attorney General Misconduct, Racial Discrimination, Gay/Lesbian, Religious Discrimination, Editorials

Less Than Equal: State officials, including prejudiced human-rights commissioners, block Prisoner complaints by Lance Tapley This story has a bias. It’s in favor of human rights for all people. So if you think it’s proper for prison guards to call African-American prisoners “niggers” and gay prisoners “fags,” then this story …

Maine Prison System’s Board of Visitors: Secret, Unaccountable and Co-Opted

Article • February 15, 2010 • from PLN February, 2010

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Government Misconduct, Interviews, Totality of Conditions

Maine Prison System’s Board of Visitors: Secret, Unaccountable and Co-Opted by Lance Tapley The state prison in Warren has been hammered in recent months by a prisoner murder and other violence, a prisoner hunger strike, legislative investigations exposing mismanagement and poor guard morale, and a request by human-rights groups for …

Maine Prison in Turmoil

Article • October 15, 2009 • from PLN October, 2009

Filed under: DOC/BOP misconduct, Discrimination, Sex Offenders (Discrimination), Failure to Protect (General), Guard Brutality/Beatings, Trust Accounts, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death)

Maine Prison in Turmoil by Lance Tapley By the time Warden Jeffrey Merrill revealed on June 3 that three Maine State Prison employees had been put on paid leave as a result of a state police investigation of an inmate’s death in April, probes of corruption and other issues at …

Is It Time to Ban Solitary Confinement?

Article • October 15, 2009

Filed under: Mental Health

Is It Time to Ban Solitary Confinement? by Julia Dahl By Julia Dahl (The Crime Report) Some call it torture, some call it proper punishment. But in Maine, long-term solitary confinement may soon be illegal. Last week’s episode of Law & Order: SVU centered around a man who, after assaulting …

Discretionary Function Exception Shields State from Liability in MTCA Action

Article • July 15, 2009

Filed under: Civil Procedure, State Law Claims, Sovereign Immunity

Discretionary Function Exception Shields State from Liability in MTCA Action by On June 21, 1999, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine affirmed a grant of summary judgment to the State of Maine in a Maine Tort Claims Act (MTCA) case regarding the alleged negligence of a guard who closed a …

Sexual Abuse by Prison and Jail Staff Proves Persistent, Pandemic

Article • May 15, 2009 • from PLN May, 2009

Filed under: Staff-Prisoner Assault, Private Prisons, Corrections Corporation of America/CoreCivic, Cornell Corrections, GRW Corp., Staff-Prisoner Harassment, Guard Misconduct, DOC/BOP misconduct, Jail Misconduct, Criminal Prosecution

Sexual Abuse by Prison and Jail Staff Proves Persistent, Pandemic by Gary Hunter Sexual assault, rape, indecency, deviance. These terms represent reprehensible behavior in our society. They also represent recurring themes in our nation’s prisons – not only by prisoners, but also by guards and other staff members. PLN’s August …

Informant/Hit Man In 20 Murders Released After 12 Years; Paid $20,000

Article • August 15, 2008 • from PLN August, 2008

Filed under: Misconduct/Corruption, Police Misconduct, Informants, Crime

Informant/Hit Man In 20 Murders Released After 12 Years; Paid $20,000 by John Dannenberg by John E. Dannenberg A hit man with 20 cold-blooded murders under his belt, but who turned government informant to expose a dirty FBI agent, was released from a Massachusetts state prison in 2007 after serving …

Maine Jail Not Liable for Strip Search Policy

Article • August 15, 2008

Filed under: Searches, Strip Searches, Arrestee Searches, Municipal Liability, False Arrest

Maine Jail Not Liable for Strip Search Policy by The plaintiff was arrested for an unpaid traffic fine, which in fact had been paid, and was strip-searched on admission to the jail. Nobody could be held liable for this, since there was no evidence of a municipal custom. Though the …

Maine Ambulance Service Ordered To Respond To Reduced Rate Prison Calls

Article • August 15, 2008

Filed under: Medical, Medical Expenses, Ambulance Service

Maine Ambulance Service Ordered To Respond To Reduced Rate Prison Calls by The Maine Department of Public Safety, Department of Emergency Medical Services (Department appealed a court ruling that it's board erred in requiring the Town of Warren Ambulance Service (Service) to respond to calls at the State Prison. The …

MN Work-Release Prisoner Entitled to Unemployment Benefits After Being Fired for Missing Work

Article • August 15, 2008

Filed under: Work Release, Work, Prison Labor

MN Work-Release Prisoner Entitled to Unemployment Benefits After Being Fired for Missing Work by Cassandra Jenkins, a Minnesota state prisoner, was sentenced to 30 days in jail with work-release privileges. Her employer agreed to cooperate with the work release rules, including verifying Jenkins’ employment to work-release authorities. However, the employer …

Wave of reform

Article • February 15, 2008

Filed under: News, State Legislation

Wave of reform by Lance Tapley There is now a chance to fix Maine?s broken corrections system, but only if the public speaks up By: LANCE TAPLEY 2/6/2008 11:49:12 AM A wave of change is moving swiftly toward Maine?s jails and prisons. It could bring major reform - or a …

Educating inmates

Article • February 15, 2008

Filed under: Education, News

Educating inmates by Lance Tapley By: LANCE TAPLEY 2/6/2008 4:48:35 PM Another wave of reform is surging from Lewiston's Bates College: a movement to expand college courses for prisoners. The goal has been embraced by the state Department of Corrections. At a Bates meeting on January 21, Max Kenner, of …

Maine Strip Search Case Nets $825,000 in Attorney Fees

Article • December 15, 2007

Filed under: Strip Searches, Arrestee Searches, Attorney Fee Awards, Civil Procedure, Costs

Maine Strip Search Case Nets $825,000 in Attorney Fees by In a class action strip-search case against York County, Maine, that settled for $3.3 million, a federal court awarded class counsel attorney fees totaling 25 percent of the settlement, $825,000. The court also directed counsel to provide documentation of "accrued …

Plaintiffs Granted SJ in Maine Strip-Search Case

Article • December 15, 2007

Filed under: Searches, Strip Searches, Arrestee Searches

Plaintiffs Granted SJ in Maine Strip-Search Case by A federal court in Maine granted a class of detainees summary judgment against the Knox County Jail for strip searches conducted without individualized suspicion. Class counsel called the decision a "slam dunk," while defense counsel complained that the judge "got it wrong." …

$35,000 Settlement in Maine Jail Strip-Search Case

Article • December 15, 2007

Filed under: Searches, Strip Searches, Arrestee Searches

$35,000 Settlement in Maine Jail Strip-Search Case by After he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge, Geoffrey V.V. Wood was strip-searched at Maine's Hancock County Jail. Wood filed suit, alleging the strip search procedures were illegal and unconstitutional. He settled his lawsuit in May 2004 for $35,000. See: Wood v. …

An Unprecedented Crime: Mass Torture in America. And How to Stop It

Article • November 15, 2007

Filed under: Crime/Demographics, Crime, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Suicides, Access to Media

An Unprecedented Crime: Mass Torture in America. And How to Stop It by Lance Tapley By: LANCE TAPLEY 11/14/2007 1:49:18 PM Editor's Note: This is an edited version of a speech given by Phoenix contributing writer Lance Tapley to a seminar at the National Lawyers Guild 70th Anniversary Convention in …

Little State, Big Problems: Maine’s Prison Crisis Continues Unabated

Article • October 15, 2007 • from PLN October, 2007

Filed under: Out of State Transfers, Corrections Corporation of America/CoreCivic, Misconduct/Corruption, Guard Misconduct, DOC/BOP misconduct, Retaliation for Media Contact, Retaliatory Transfers, Hunger Strikes, Criminal Prosecution, Crime, Failure to Treat (Mental Illness), Suicides, Access to Media, State Legislation

Little State, Big Problems: Maine’s Prison Crisis Continues Unabated by Lance Tapley Little State, Big Problems: Maine?s Prison Crisis Continues Unabated by Lance Tapley Only big prison systems mistreat prisoners, right? Only prison systems where racism, right-wing tough-on-crime attitudes, or prison-industrial-complex power have full reign, like in California or Texas, …

Old Media Access Consent Decrees Violated in Maine

Article • October 15, 2007 • from PLN October, 2007

Filed under: Consent Decrees, Mail, Mail Regulations, Access to Media

Old Media Access Consent Decrees Violated in Maine by Lance Tapley The Maine Department of Corrections has been violating at least two of three 35-year-old federal court orders that grant prisoners access to the press, allow them to write to newspapers, and prohibit prison officials from arbitrarily transferring prisoners out …