Justice for All Begins with Justice at Home

Pass the Parole Bill and Clean Slate Act; Create an Independent Statewide Public Defense System

Once again, the Maine Legislature has an opportunity to enact a law to create a just

and fair parole system for people involved in the state’s criminal justice system.

Lawmakers also have an opportunity to re-institute meaningful clean slate laws.

While they are at it, we should once and for all remedy our failure to provide

constitutionally compliant legal representation for people who encounter the state’s

criminal justice system and cannot afford to pay a private attorney to defend them.

Proponents of the parole bill and justice advocates have been urging for the

passage of a parole bill for years. This in the face of consistent opposition from

both political parties, including the current administration in Augusta.

Maine is the only New England state without a parole system, and is in fact the

only state without a formal, statewide public defense system.

Maine justice advocates are also urging passage of a clean slate bill to remove the

stigma and social disadvantages that come with criminal convictions. This

initiative too has met with bipartisan opposition. States all over the United States

have recognized the importance of removing barriers to employment and housing,

healthcare and insurance, and the terrible burdens of the collateral consequences of

a criminal conviction. Maine on the other hand has allowed its clean slate

statute to lapse.

Why discuss all three of these issues simultaneously? It is important to understand

that all criminal justice policy is intertwined. The right to counsel, parole, case

diversion programs, expungement, post-conviction remedies, and wrongful

conviction remediation are all connected. The right to counsel is at the core of all

of this. As the U.S Supreme Court long ago pronounced in United States v. Cronic,

“of all the rights that an accused person has, the right to be represented by counsel

is by far the most pervasive, for it affects his ability to assert any other rights he

may have.”

Maine Correctional officials rightly take pride in some innovative policies allowing

prisoners to work full time remotely from prison, and state officials like to point

out some of the intermediary steps they have recently taken in an effort to comply

with a Superior Court order to fix the broken public defense system and avoid

dismissal of more pending criminal cases on its court dockets. Like our neighbors

in Vermont, incarcerated people here are not disenfranchised from voting, and this

is very admirable and good public policy.

But on the other hand, Maine has had one wrongful felony conviction reversed

since the founding of the state over 250 years ago, and that only happened in 2022.

How likely is it, really, that in two and a half centuries, only one person was ever

wrongfully convicted of a felony? Do you think that might have something to do

with not providing the majority of the state’s criminal defendants with

constitutionally mandated legal counsel? We are willing to advance progressive

policies in prison because incarceration of unrepresented people is the norm. Relief

on appeal or post-conviction procedures is improbable, release on parole is

non-existent, and relief from impediments to returning to society are unattainable

after they serve their time.

We need only to look at our nearby neighbors in New Hampshire and Vermont for

examples of efficient, cost effective, and justice driven public defense, parole and

Case sealing systems. We must take notes, because in these areas, the sad truth

that Maine does not lead, it lags.

Fair and just criminal justice and penal policies and practices are proven to save

taxpayer dollars, reduce crime and recidivism, rebuild lives, and strengthen

families and communities. A fair, just and humane justice system benefits all of us.

Justice for all begins with justice at home. Mainers should contact their state

representatives in Augusta and urge swift passage of the parole and clean slate acts

L.D. 1941 and L.D. 1911, and urge them to get to solve the state’s horrendous

public defense crisis. The majority of people in Maine, if they themselves or a

loved one encounter the state criminal justice system, do not have access to the

financial resources to pay for the services of a private defense attorney. That’s why

middle and low income folks go to and stay in prison while wealthy people manage

to stay out or get out.