WMPG - Justice Radio
Hosted by Linda Small (Executive Director, Reentry Sisters) and Nicole Lund.

Interview explores an art and humanities project called “Still Becoming” for justice-impacted women and their families in Maine.

Maine Law Review (2024)

Abstract: The Article argues that Maine incarcerates too many people, for too long, for too many things, at too great of an expense. We offer evidence to support this claim, briefly review some of the criminal legal legislation that shaped our present reality, and show how recent efforts at reform have been, at best, only modestly successful. In concert with a growing number of expert voices across the country calling for strategies of decarceration, our goal is to demonstrate the need for second chance legislation in Maine in the form of the reinstatement of parole, an effective clemency process, a far-reaching reevaluation of custody levels, and a new revision of the Maine Criminal Code. We argue that Maine needs a restorative pathway to decarceration that would meaningfully reduce the number of people in prison and recidivism rates, while emplacing broader and more effective responses to harm than that afforded by incarceration alone.

June 13, 2023 | In 1976, the Legislature made the decision to eliminate parole in the state of Maine, believing, at the time, that more transparent sentencing guidelines made parole unnecessary.

Forty-seven years later, we can now see that a comprehensive set of guidelines to sentencing may, alone, not actually be the best approach. Consider the current picture of our incarcerated population, and the challenges and stresses it places on our law enforcement infrastructure. Given the nature of the offenses for which we currently lock up a large number of Mainers, we all deserve an opportunity to rethink the state’s current position about parole.

That’s why LD 178, An Act to Support Re-entry and Reintegration into the Community, deserves our support.

April 5, 2023 | Is prison a place for punishment or rehabilitation? That is the question at the heart of a debate in the Maine Legislature over a bill to revive parole in the state.

To answer that question, consider that almost every person incarcerated in Maine will one day return to their communities, their families and maybe their workplaces. Given this reality, ensuring those who are incarcerated receive the counseling, education and other support they need must be a priority.

Parole can be one piece of this puzzle.

Note: The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.

March 14, 2023 | There are 1,675 people incarcerated in Maine and not one of them is eligible for parole.

When Maine abolished parole in 1976, the state began enacting some of the harshest sentencing practices in the country and eliminated any feasible path toward rehabilitation and reentry. That’s why I support L.D. 178: An Act to Support Re-entry and Reintegration into the Community, so those incarcerated in Maine will have a clear incentive for personal transformation, a structured course for reentry and a second chance for redemption. Good time credit can be earned through educational and vocational programming, but it only takes a few days a month off a sentence; for a lengthy sentence that accrued time would be negligible. According to research and advocacy center The Sentencing Project, lengthy sentences do nothing to reduce crime rates, and those with longer sentences who’ve committed violent crimes are the least likely to reoffend, so they would benefit most from the possibility of parole.

February 22, 2023 | A special commission that studied parole is recommending the Maine State Legislature and Governor Janet Mills renew parole, after a 47-year absence in the state, so more Maine inmates can leave prison before their sentences are complete.

Seven of the twelve members of the Commission To Examine Reestablishing Parole voted to restore parole, while two dissented, and three abstained, upon release of the commission’s report, which followed months of research and hearings.

Maine banned parole in 1976, when the state became the first in the nation to outlaw it, and 15 other states have followed suit.

Mills and the legislature established the commission last year to reconsider that policy.

Arthur C. Jones, of Belfast, a commissioner who spent 35 years on parole boards – 28 years in New Jersey and 7 in Rhode Island -- said in an interview via Zoom, he thinks inmates should be eligible for parole after serving one-third of their sentence, if they have a clean record behind bars, have expressed remorse, have undergone rehabilitation, and have a plan for when they get out.