Prison News | Maine

• Education & Rehabilitation
• Executions, Death Row, & the Death Penalty
• Gangs in Prison
• Health & Medical Treatment
• Prison Classification, Placement, and Release
• Prison Conditions & Corruption
• Prison Life & Prison Culture
• Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes
• Suicides in Prison
• Workplace & Industry News and Science & Tech

Education & Rehabilitation

• Program Aims To Make Inmates Better Fathers
  
  WINDHAM, Maine (AP) — A program at the Maine state prison in Windham is trying not just to make inmates better citizens when they’re released, but better fathers as well.

  The InsideOut Dad program at the Maine Correctional Center was developed by the nonprofit National Fatherhood Initiative.... [ more ]

  Associated Press, Monday, July 14, 2014
  
  
• Goodwill puts focus on jobs at Maine juvenile detention center ; Goodwill Industries will give juvenile offenders work experience before they are released.
  
  John Patriquin / Staff Photographer Goodwill's program starts Monday at Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, replacing a job training program that Jobs for Maine Graduates, an Augusta nonprofit, operated out of the facility ...... [ more ]
  Portland Press Herald, Saturday, July 27, 2013
  
  

Executions, Death Row & the Death Penalty

Gangs in Prison

Health & Medical Treatment

Prison Classification, Placement, & Release

• Maine prison inmate placed in isolation after killing Inmate Richard Stahursky, who is alleged to have repeatedly stabbed another prisoner, is expected to be charged with murder, police say.
  
  The inmate who police say killed another prisoner at the Maine State Prison in Warren on Friday has been placed in a segregation unit to prevent him from mingling with other prisoners while Maine State Police conduct an investigation into the homicide.... [ more ]
  Portland Press Herald, Monday, March 3, 2014
  
  
• Colby College bell to toll for student's murder 10 years ago
  
  WATERVILLE (AP) — The bell at Colby College's Lorimer Chapel will ring 10 times on Monday for the 10 years that have passed since a 21-year-old student was abducted and murdered by a prison parolee.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Monday, September 16, 2013
  
  
• Gender-Responsive Policies and Practices in Maine: What Incarcerated Women at the Women�s Center Say They Need from the Criminal Justice System (2012)
  
  The implementation of gender-responsive policies at the Women’s Center located at the Maine Correctional Facility in Windham, Maine is assessed. You will find this interesting reading especially if you work with female inmates. It may provide you with strategies to address the needs of women you have not thought of. Findings and discussion from this study cover: what is working well and what needs to be changed to be more gender-responsive—the “college dorm” set up, a relational community, a connection to families and children, work assignments, programs and activities, planning for life after incarceration, services (i.e., medical, dental, a... [ more ]
  National Institute of Corrections, Thursday, August 29, 2013
  
  
• Maine bill may expand to address Riverview funding
  
  AUGUSTA — A legislative committee may consider a bill next week to address the tenuous status of Riverview Psychiatric Center, which could lose $20 million in federal funding next month.... [ more ]
  Portland Press Herald, Friday, August 23, 2013
  
  
• Maine Department of Corrections ditches electronic monitoring
  
  AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Electronic ankle bracelets used to track an offender's whereabouts continue to grow in popularity across most of the United States. But that's not the case in Maine.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Sunday, July 28, 2013
  
  
• State revives monitoring bracelets to protect domestic violence victims
  
  BANGOR, Maine -- The Maine Department of Corrections has 150 electronic monitoring bracelets that have sat idle for nearly a decade because officials said using them was less efficient and effective than hoped, according to a department ...... [ more ]
  Bangor Daily News, Tuesday, July 2, 2013
  
  

Prison Conditions & Corruption

• Mountain View youth center inmate's jaw broken as part of 'initiation,' grandparents say
  
  BANGOR, Maine -- A 16-year-old inmate at Mountain View Youth Development Center underwent surgery early Wednesday to repair a broken jaw he suffered during the latest in a series of "initiation" fights at the Charleston-based correctional ...... [ more ]
  Bangor Daily News, Saturday, July 27, 2013
  
  
• Federal expert says Maine's county jail system is in a state of crisis and needs more funding
  
  AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - An expert from the U.S. Department of Justice says Maine's system of county jails is in crisis. Rod Miller told Maine's Board of Corrections on Tuesday that the jails are "trying to do too much with too little.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Wednesday, July 17, 2013
  
  
• Drugs imperil county jail contact visits in Maine ; Despite state standards, some sheriffs prefer video-only visits so contraband can't be...
  
  Drugs imperil county jail contact visits in Maine Despite state standards, some sheriffs prefer video-only visits so contraband can't be smuggled.... [ more ]
  Portland Press Herald, Monday, June 24, 2013
  
  

Prison Life & Culture

• Alone in a Prison Cell With a Tiny Window �Frontline� Looks at Jail in �Solitary Nation�
  
  “Solitary Nation” is about as hopeless an hour of television as you can imagine, which is exactly the reason to watch it. Whatever picture you might have in your mind of the nature of solitary confinement will be changed by this “Frontline” documentary (Tuesday night on PBS stations), and any notions you might have that it could be eliminated will be dimmed.... [ more ]
  New York Times, Monday, April 21, 2014
  
  
• Change Is Possible: A Case Study of Solitary Confinement Reform in Maine
  
  The successful efforts of individuals to reduce the use of solitary confinement and to make the conditions found in solitary settings are described. Sections of this case study include: introduction; the origins of solitary confinement; the psychological effects of long-term isolation; before the reforms—solitary confinement in Maine; it does not have to be this way—the Maine reform example of what and how it happened; keys to success—honest assessment and organizing and cooperation; overcoming institutional inertia related to safety, alternatives, reform worth the effort, and whether advocated really understand the situation; the lessons of ... [ more ]
  National Institute of Corrections, Tuesday, September 3, 2013
  
  
• Maine jail may ban visits with inmates
  
  ALFRED, Maine -- The York County Jail is proposing to end in- person visits between inmates and their families and friends to cut down on the amount of drugs, tobacco, and other contraband being smuggled in.... [ more ]
  Boston Globe, Monday, June 10, 2013
  
  

Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes

• Inmate dies at minimum-security prison in Machiasport - The death is under investigation, and a spokesman refuses to say whether it is considered suspicious.
  
  Phillip Kay, 32, died at 3:15 p.m. Friday, the department said. Spokesman Scott Fish said Maine State Police and the state medical examiner are investigating the death and no other information could be released immediately.... [ more ]
  Maine Sunday Telegram, Sunday, May 11, 2014
  
  
• Two Mountain View youth center inmates who escaped custody in Dexter apprehended
  
  DEXTER, Maine -- Two inmates at the Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston escaped Sunday evening, but have since been returned to the facility, according to Maine State Police.... [ more ]
  Bangor Daily News, Monday, July 15, 2013
  
  
• No motive yet in Maine prison homicide ; Guy Hunnewell is accused of killing fellow inmate Alan Powell Jr.,
  
  No motive yet in Maine prison homicide Guy Hunnewell is accused of killing fellow inmate Alan Powell Jr., but state officials aren't saying what might have caused the attack.... [ more ]
  Portland Press Herald, Thursday, June 27, 2013
  
  
• Maine inmate escapes from home confinement 10 days before his release
  
  AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine corrections officials say a 37-year-old inmate has escaped from home confinement 10 days before his sentence was due to end.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Thursday, June 6, 2013
  
  

Suicides in Prison

• Federal lawsuit over inmate�s suicide in 2008 at Portland jail to go forward
  
  PORTLAND, Maine — A portion of a wrongful death lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the mother of an inmate who committed suicide while incarcerated at the Cumberland County Jail in 2008 will go forward after the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month upheld a decision by a federal judge in Maine....... [ more ]
  Bangor Daily News, Sunday, June 15, 2014
  
  

Workplace & Industry News, and Science & Tech News

• Maine State Prison looking to fill 20 job openings
  
  WARREN, Maine (AP) - Corrections officials are looking to fill 20 jobs at the Maine State Prison in Warren. The Department of Corrections says it wants to fill the correction officer openings by Aug. 26. The jobs pay an average of $34,000 a year with benefits.... [ more ]
  Associated Press, Wednesday, August 14, 2013
  
  
• Maine corrections director's exit leaves jail issues on table
  
  Michael Tausek, former executive director of the Board of Corrections, has a new Maine State Prison job.... [ more ]
  Portland Press Herald, Friday, July 5, 2013
  
  
• Sheriff: Flat funding from state may force layoffs at Penobscot County Jail
  
  BANGOR, Maine -- Penobscot County commissioners will hear Tuesday whether Sheriff Glenn Ross will be able to run the jail on flat funding from the state without laying off a dozen people or more.... [ more ]
  Bangor Daily News, Monday, July 1, 2013
  
  
• Mountain View Youth Development Center names new superintendent
  
  CHARLESTON, Maine -- Maine Department of Corrections Associate Commissioner Joe Fitzpatrick announced Wednesday that Jeffrey Morin has been hired as the superintendent at Mountain View Youth Development Center.... [ more ]
  Bangor Daily News, Wednesday, June 12, 2013