Maine Morning Star

Maine State Prison, the state’s largest correctional facility, located in Warren. (Photo by Evan Popp/Maine Morning Star) Incarcerated Mainers can get college degrees, earn wages through remote work and vote. There’s universal access to medication for opioid use disorder in the state’s prisons, along with mental health services, collaborations with victim service organizations and reimagined living spaces to support rehabilitation. These opportunities for personal growth helped establish the...

The Maine Legislature passed legislation to strengthen existing avenues for oversight of Maine jails, a compromise after an initial proposal for a corrections ombudsman faced pushback.

Courts have ruled Maine’s indigent defense system is in violation of defendants’ Sixth Amendment rights. The state’s public defense agency has run out of money to pay the private defense lawyers it contracts with, who handle the vast majority of constitutionally-mandated indigent legal services in Maine. Hundreds of private attorneys who work for the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services will now go unpaid for legal work that they have already done, and will not be paid again until the...