On Monday, New York lawmakers satisfied the demands of CARE for Immigrant Families , a coalition of justice reform, civil rights, and labor rights organizations, in their bid to secure more $175 million in funding for immigrant legal defense services. You can read the organization's statement here . The right to due process belongs to all people within the jurisdiction of the United States, regardless of immigrant status, documented or not. As the unconstitutional arrests an

BANGOR, Maine — Penobscot County officials are sharing the first glimpse of what a proposed new jail in Hampden could look like. The project has been in discussion for several years. While it is still in the early stages, Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton said updates to the current facility are long overdue. The Penobscot County Jail has been located on Hammond Street in Bangor for more than 150 years. Read the full article on New Center Maine .

A federal judge’s decision paints a picture of a state corrections commissioner unable or unwilling to address brutality and corruption. Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III of the state Department of Correction and Community Supervision at a legislative panel in May 2025. In the preceding six months, two men had been beaten to death by correction officers in New York's prisons If she hasn’t already, Gov. Kathy Hochul should read a federal judge’s decision to reject state corr

Peter, Paul and Mary perform at the Cumberland County Civic Center in 1985 to mark 25 years since the trio formed. Noel Paul Stookey was still a long way from Maine when he and his Peter, Paul and Mary bandmates heard one of their songs, “Lemon Tree,” on the radio for the first time. It was 1962, and the trio were riding across San Francisco Bay, heading to their first on-air appearance with the DJ who helped the track take off. They asked the record company representative dr

The Maine State Prison in Warren The likelihood of a veto by Gov. Janet Mills, who opposes the effort to reestablish a parole system, hung over debate at the Capitol. Read the full article in the Portland Press Herald .

Resident Darren McKenzie (right) and Jesse Mackin water tomato plants on the grounds of the Mountain View Correctional Facility’s garden in Charleston in June 2021 Maine is one of 16 states that has abolished or severely limited parole. It's the only state in the Northeast to do so. Different from probation, which is part of someone's sentence, parole is the conditional, supervised release of a prisoner into the community before a sentence is completed. Four years ago, a stat

Recently, an organization we are working with, No Penobscot County Jail Expansion , held a press conference making their case for the establishment of diversion programs as an alternative to the construction of a new county jail. BANGOR, Maine (WABI) - While Penobscot County works on plans to relocate the jail from Bangor to Hampden, a local group has formed to offer an alternative. Hoping to keep folks out of jail rather than expand the number of beds, local activists have c

The referendum question would require voters to show IDs that prisoners currently can’t have. Photo by Gabe Souza. MAINE, USA — Some civil rights advocates are worried that Question 1 on next month’s referendum ballot could block incarcerated people’s right to vote. The coalition Voter ID for ME successfully petitioned through a citizen initiative to put the proposed legislation on the November 4 ballot. Question 1 asks voters to consider requiring photo identification to vot

In this Wednesday, May 31, 2017 court-appointed "lawyer of the day" Merritt Hemingway defends a person charged with a crime at Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland, Maine. Gov. LePage's $6.8 billion budget includes a plan to shake up a system that currently sends millions of dollars in state money to hire private lawyers for indigent defense. The long-running legal challenge over Maine's failure to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who can't afford them has rea

The man had been convicted of manslaughter as a teenager after he admitted to fatally shooting a man during a pool hall confrontation in Brooklyn, arguing it was self-defense. In early July, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York pardoned an immigrant from Laos to stave off his deportation, but unlike dozens of pardons she has granted before , the governor did not publicize this action. The man Ms. Hochul pardoned, Somchith Vatthanavong, 52, had been convicted of manslaughter as a te

In this Wednesday, May 31, 2017 court-appointed "lawyer of the day" Merritt Hemingway defends a person charged with a crime at Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland, Maine. Maine's federal defender and court-appointed attorneys are sounding the alarm about a dire funding shortfall that they say could mean delayed trials for indigent clients. Nearly 60 private attorneys in Maine stopped getting paid to represent low-income clients in federal criminal cases on July 3.

Gov. Kathy Hochul should be commended for bringing the illegal wildcat strike by prison guards to a conclusion within the law while...

The University of Maine School of Law is trying to reestablish a criminal justice legal clinic for student attorneys, but funding it...

The following is a testimony given by Frank Zarro before the Maine legislature in April 2025 Dear Senator Beebee-Center, Representative...

The Legislature should take steps to create a new, independent public defense system that's financed by social impact bonds. “Of all the...

Our existing system churns the same people back into its prisons, year after year, costing hundreds of millions of dollars that would be...

Larry Sauls Jr. said he waited more than 20 years for someone to hear how he turned his life around since coming home from prison. View...

Our founder, Frank Zarro, was featured in this Times Union story about the planned affordable condominium project at the remediated 53 Putnam Street brownfield in Saratoga Springs, where Society Impact has been engaged in cleanup and redevelopment work. For more information about this project, see our recent write up about it . Empty lot at 53 Putnam St. across from Saratoga Springs Public Library where the city wants to develop the property into a five-story affordable condo