Toward a Cage-Free Maine

Artwork inside Maine State Prison. photo/Trent Bell, courtesy Freedom & Captivity

A Restorative Pathway to Decarceration and Abolition 

“The power of community to create health is far greater than any physician, clinic or hospital.” 
— Mark Hyman

AFTER 

Nationwide, people with a criminal conviction are subject to more than 44,000 collateral consequences that hinder their ability to re-enter society, support their families, get a job, secure housing, obtain a professional license, vote, serve on juries, access credit and educational loans, and much more. The impact is devastating and directly contributes to the appalling percentage of people — 79 percent nationwide — who are rearrested within five years of their release.  

Maine has capped some collateral consequences: people with felony convictions are allowed to vote, serve on juries, and run for public office, for example, each of which is an important dimension of civic duty and belonging. Yet Maine still ranks near the bottom among states evaluated on the Reintegration Report Card by the Restoration of Rights Project, based on factors including the granting of pardons, expungement of criminal and non-conviction records, and access to employment and occupational licenses.

Within the four years between 2015 and 2018, 20 percent of those released from prison in Maine returned to prison (and this figure does not include those sent to jail for lesser offenses, which many incarcerated people and corrections personnel will affirm is a regular occurrence). People leaving prison are set up to fail, which compounds trauma, breaks families, and causes intergenerational impoverishment. We need to do things differently to ensure those community members returning from prison are able to support their families, contribute to society, and feel a sense of belonging, rather than meeting them with a barrage of stigmatizing rules and policies that are punitive and exclusionary. 

In addition to confronting the barriers created by social stigma and public policy, people leaving prison face a bewildering and destabilizing set of challenges as they try to navigate their return to normal life. Too often, people are released with no idea how they are going to live on the outside. According to a Memorandum of Understanding between the Maine Prisoner Re-entry Network (MPRN) and Maine’s Department of Corrections (DOC), people being released from prison are supposed to connect with their caseworkers nine months prior to their anticipated release date. They’re supposed to receive guidance on what services, resources and connections exist that could support them during their time of transition. 

What actually happens in many (if not most) cases is that people step out of prison blind — they have not received the guidance and information they need, nor have they been properly prepared to absorb the inevitable kick in the teeth that awaits them upon their re-entry. Unless they have family and a well established support system, people leave prison with next to nothing aside from what they’ve heard through the prison grapevine or received from a particularly invested caseworker. Oftentimes, people approach the week before their release with no bank account, no state ID, and no idea how to get housing. They’re set free with $50 and a bus ticket. And again, that’s from state prison. When people are released from county jails, they leave with nothing other than what they had on their backs and in their pockets when they came in — assuming it wasn’t held as evidence.

Re-entry is currently managed through three pathways: straight release, release to probation, or release to home confinement through the Supervised Community Confinement Program (SCCP). In 2021, 712 men and 58 women were released from prison in Maine. Of the men, 360 were released directly into society and 352 were released on probation. For women, 38 were straight releases, and 20 were released on probation. In addition, as noted in our first installment of this series in January, an estimated 40,000 people, incarcerated pre-trial, cycle through Maine jails every single year. There are currently about 5,400 people under some form of DOC supervision in their community: about 4,200 are under what’s called “active probation,” by which they need to engage in some type of treatment or education and report to their probation officer on a regular basis, and the other 1,200 people are on “passive probation,” allowed to live normal lives with the occasional check-in with their probation officer, although their status can be changed to “active” at any time. And regardless of status, if a probation officer determines someone has violated a rule, they can be returned to prison.  

Our rate of success helping incarcerated people transition to life in the free world is pretty dismal. In 2021, there were 694 new prison admissions, or almost two each day. Forty-five percent of those admissions were for probation violations (usually for a behavior that would be legal if they were not on probation, like drinking a glass of wine). These stats make it clear that our system is doing something wrong. In this third and final part of our series, we offer a guide to an alternative approach to re-entry. What should we be doing differently?

Stop the Stigma

The “tough on crime” era that began in the 1970s ushered in a rash of stigmatizing penalties used against people who’ve been caged, including laws barring them from living in public housing, applying for federal education loans, and obtaining licenses or certifications for a wide range of professions. Additionally, prospective employers, landlords, educational institutions and financial institutions can demand information about an applicant’s criminal history and often discriminate against them based on those records. Losing one’s freedom and serving time in prison are the penalty for a conviction; ongoing stigma and exclusion only cause more harm.  

• Eradicate stigmatizing language. Language matters, and when people returning from prison are identified by terms like “convicted felon,” “violent offender” and “criminal,” these labels stick and bite. Once someone is convicted of a crime, their name will forever be associated with that crime through background checks and media coverage archived online. Even after death, newspaper obituaries commonly reference the offense for which the deceased was once incarcerated. Lifelong labeling for a conviction has to stop. 

Interrupt misogynistic language for formerly incarcerated women. Women who’ve spent time behind bars face a gendered form of stigma, such as being identified as “bad mothers” for having once made a mistake or poor choice, or had to defend themselves or their children against further abuse. Those negative labels can be psychologically crippling for women trying to rebuild their lives while reuniting with their children. 

• Pass the Primary Caregiver bill currently before the Maine Legislature, which would allow community-based sentences instead of incarceration for primary caregivers, keeping families together and avoiding the havoc caused when the head of a household is locked away.  
• Make justice-impacted people a protected class. People returning to society from prison should be a legally protected class. Incarceration disproportionately impacts people who are poor, traumatized, and struggling with substance-use disorder or mental illness or both. We know our criminal legal system is racially biased, resulting in the dramatic hyperincarceration of people of color. One way to ease the burden of these inequalities is to offer protected status to those who’ve been caged by the carceral system, ensuring that the fact they’ve “paid their debt to society” for a past transgression cannot be used to limit their future. Beyond protection from discrimination, recently freed people should be given employment preferences and easier access to subsidized housing during the year following their release. This would ultimately benefit all of us. 

Reform Post-Release Supervision Policies

Current post-release supervision policies do not provide sufficient support; instead, they are unnecessarily heavy on surveillance. While this paradigm seems to be changing for the better in Maine, the experience of probation for most is still like walking on eggshells, fearful that the next step could cost you your freedom. The focus of post-release supervision policies and practices must shift from surveillance to support.

• Eradicate reincarceration for technical violations of probation.  The stated purpose of probation is “to assist the person to lead a law-abiding life, including, without exception, a condition of probation that the person refrain from criminal conduct.” Somehow, this assistance has turned into another form of punishment, another way to keep people trapped in the carceral system. For example, it doesn’t matter if a person is one day away from completing their probation; if their probation is revoked, it’s as if they never served a day of it. Upon release, they will have to start their entire probation period over again. We commend the DOC’s efforts to change probation officers’ understanding of their role from one of overseer to that of a supporter. To make this shift effective in practice, the option of reincarceration for technical violations must be taken off the table. This punishment tends to be for behavior that, were the person not serving probation, would be completely legal, or it’s for failing to achieve something, like getting a job or an apartment, rather than causing any harm.  
• Abolish income withholding. While we wholeheartedly support victim compensation, financially crippling recently freed people by withholding part of their paycheck to pay fines, fees and restitution actually hinders their ability to provide that compensation, both in the present and long-term. Bereft of any savings or access to credit, limited by discrimination to low-paying labor, and suddenly shouldering all the costs of living outside the walls, people returning from prison often must work two or three jobs just to get by. This state-sanctioned robbery needs to end. Furthermore, forcing employers to withhold the wages of their workers damages bosses and their business, compelling them to make their employees’ lives harder, which inevitably impacts their job performance. Because to deny the state its pound of flesh, the employer risks punishment themselves. 
• Remove fee requirements from probation. Supervision fees. Electronic monitoring fees. Substance testing fees. Application fees to request permission to travel. These and other levies constitute a further burden on people struggling to rebuild their lives and must be abolished. 
• Review and revise restitution policies. People who have been victimized should not be re-victimized by the state. When people are harmed, they have a right to repair. The person who harmed them has an obligation to participate in the repairing of that harm. Our adversarial legal system prevents this reparative action by those who’ve caused harm. And rather than facilitating healing, Maine’s restitution policies demand a person who’s been harmed justify their status as a “victim” in order to receive compensation. This is wrong and must be changed. People who have been harmed should be directly involved in determining what they need to be made whole. Any restitution should go directly to them, not the state’s General Fund. 
• Expand the Supervised Community Confinement Program (SCCP). The American Bar Association says that after 10 years, incarceration becomes counterproductive. In 2021, SCCP had a 91 percent success rate. There are currently 66 folks on SCCP in Maine and there have been very few violations, most of which are related to substance use. With this type of success, the DOC has an opportunity to implement the research put forward by the Bar Association and others by, for example, reviewing re-entry preparation after 10 years for those serving long sentences. If an incarcerated person has successfully engaged in rehabilitative and transformative engagement over time, and if they’ve been able to establish a support network to welcome them home, why continue to spend $78,000 a year to keep them caged? Expand SCCP to include long-term prisoners. 
• Reestablish parole. Following the positive recommendations of the 2022 Commission to Examine Reestablishing Parole, the Maine Legislature is considering LD 178, An Act to Support Re-entry and Reintegration into the Community. This bill would provide imprisoned people with a clear pathway toward parole eligibility, one that encourages genuine rehabilitation. It would create a supportive, restorative, victim-sensitive parole system. Most prisoners (over 95 percent!) will eventually be released. Whether they’re set up for success afterward is the question. Parole offers a rehabilitative pathway toward reintegration into society. For more information, check out parole4me.com. Reach out and support this effort!

Housing

We all know Maine has a severe housing crisis, but for those leaving prison, it’s more than a crisis: it’s an emergency. Our state has exactly zero halfway houses for people released from prison. The closest thing we know of is the Leading the Way Transitional Living Residence, in Bangor. This was described to us as a place used for people who have absolutely no place to go when leaving DOC facilities, or for folks in the Bangor area who are on probation, as an alternative to sheltering them in jail. It can reportedly house up to 12 people who can stay there rent-free for six months. It’s definitely not a halfway house, defined as a residence with staff, resources and programming that help people lead full lives on their own. In lieu of halfway houses for the recently freed, Maine has 68 recovery houses for people struggling with addiction, according to the Maine Association of Recovery Residences. Some are designated exclusively for men, others exclusively for women. None are designated for families. The lack of re-entry houses brings people traumatized by incarceration into close living quarters with people “white-knuckling” their sobriety, thereby jeopardizing the successful re-entry of all. Maine Prisoner Re-entry Network (MPRN), a grassroots effort that started with four or five people, has now grown to the point where about 40 people participate in their weekly collaboration call. The need and the desire for meaningfully supportive housing are clear. 

• Support MPRN’s forthcoming legislation. One of the biggest challenges to success outside is the caseworker inside. Some caseworkers are proactive and engage with MPRN and other supportive organizations with all their clients, working together as a team. These Corrections Care and Treatment Workers (CCTWs) see the value of coordinated virtual meetings with resource providers and peer support. Others refuse to engage with MPRN and their hundreds of community partners in this process, only assist some of their clients, and do not value peer support. As a result, the freed person’s success, and the community’s safety, depends on the CCTW’s personality, rather than professionalism. For many CCTWs, re-entry is just a series of boxes that need to be checked. That’s why MPRN is proposing legislation, to be negotiated with the DOC, titled, “An Act to Establish Community-Based Re-entry in All Maine Department of Corrections Facilities.” Support this legislation when it’s introduced!
• Establish independently run “three-quarter” houses. We shouldn’t have to rely entirely on the state to provide support to returning community members. Mainers with financial means can step in, lease or purchase property, and provide non-restrictive affordable housing to people coming home. These are places, sometimes called “three-quarter” houses, where people returning from jail or prison can have some semblance of stability, a foundation upon which they can rebuild a life. These houses could also be run by formerly incarcerated people, with their salary paid by the rent collected from tenants. Who better to support returning citizens than someone with lived experience? Once established, property owners could apply for state or philanthropic funding to expand this foundation of support. However, for these efforts to be successful, we collectively need to overcome the “Not In My Back Yard” mentality that opposes such housing when it’s proposed in a residential area. If we want to build community safety, we need to build community.
• Remove all barriers to low-rent, subsidized, and public housing for those with criminal histories. Remove “disqualifying” felonies and the waiting period that makes those with felony convictions wait five years before being allowed to apply for Section 8 housing. Do not allow insurance companies to discriminate against renters with a criminal history by effectively barring them from a residence under threat of withholding coverage or raising the landlord’s insurance rate.
• Revive the Fair Chance Housing Act. LD 1572, The Maine Fair Chance Housing Act, died in the Legislature in 2020. The purpose of the act is to “ensure that a person is not denied housing based solely on the existence of a history of criminal convictions.” It “prohibits a housing provider from considering an applicant’s criminal history until after the housing provider determines that the applicant meets all other qualifications for tenancy,” and gives prospective renters legal recourse if they’re victimized by such discrimination. 
• Provide meaningful funding for returning community members. Many years ago, when Maine State Prison was still in Thomaston, residents could earn up to $10,000 a year for their work in the Woodshop/Industries program. Now, the average wage is $2 an hour, yielding less than half what people used to make. Subtract from this the cost of personal hygiene and food in prison, as well as any money sent home to support struggling family members, and people laboring behind bars don’t have much left over to save for their release — to pay, for example, a security deposit for an apartment. Either give freed people money to make a new start, or enable them to earn the money they need to land on their feet.
• Provide low-interest loans with matched funding for first-time homebuyers. Many people don’t know about the Family Development Account Program offered by CASH Maine. This is a very supportive program that provides matching funds at a rate of $4 for every $1 for qualified savings goals that include the purchase of one’s first home. For returning community members, the ability to save $2,000 to realize $8,000 (the maximum amount of matching funds) feels desperately out of reach. This program needs to be more widely promoted and similar programs should be created.
• Build re-entry bridges for families. As noted above, no one is taking women with their kids into recovery homes. This forces women released from prison to choose between reuniting with their children or living in a supportive residence. We need recovery places that are safe and open to families — not just in Greater Portland, where most such homes are located, but all around the state. The regulatory hurdles to open a halfway house are prohibitively high, and for previously incarcerated people, whose experience makes them uniquely well-qualified to help those in this circumstance, the barriers are even higher. Those barriers should be lowered and incentives should be created, like no-interest loans and supportive tax and regulatory policies for recovery and post-incarceration residences. 
• Create and disseminate an annual re-entry information booklet. How can people know where to go if no one tells them? How can people know what help is available if no one shows them? A straightforward, comprehensive re-entry information booklet needs to be compiled and distributed on an annual basis to those being released from prison and jail. It should be a guide to organizations and resources returning citizens can use to secure housing, employment, health care and more. Given sufficient support, the Maine Prisoner Re-entry Network could produce an annual booklet like this.

Employment

Maine is the oldest state in the nation, and we’re struggling with a serious labor shortage right now. We need to release people from prison who have taken accountability for the harm they caused and are rehabilitated, allowing them to enter the job market and contribute to Maine’s economy while they serve out their sentences. A recent study from the Colby Laboratory for Economic Studies found that releasing just 100 people on parole would contribute $14 million to our state’s economy once they took jobs in the industries most commonly accessed by people leaving prison. Maine was graded a C by the Restoration of Rights Project for our pathway to employment for those leaving prison. We have to do better. Here are some first steps: 

• Expand “Ban the Box.” Maine’s Fair Chance Employment Act went into effect in November 2021. Colloquially known as “ban the box,” the law forbids employers to remove people from consideration for a job based on a criminal record. But once it’s been determined that a candidate is qualified for the position, the employer can ask about criminal history, and when a conditional job offer has been extended, the employer can conduct a criminal background check and choose to withdraw the offer. We need to go further and “ban the box” altogether. Do not require job-seekers to reveal a criminal history unless there is a specific public-safety-related reason to do so. 
• Remove all the barriers to certification for professions unrelated to the maintenance of public safety. Although some professional licensing boards allow for appeals, the sting of rejection typically makes the prospect of launching an appeal seem hopeless, given the lived experience of how poorly the appeals process works in the carceral/legal system.
• Eliminate mandatory waiting periods for many professions. Currently there is a three-year waiting period for formerly incarcerated people to apply for licenses for many trades and professions. There is a 10-year waiting period to apply for licenses in medicine, dentistry, osteopathy, social work, nursing, chiropractic medicine, physical therapy, alcohol and drug counseling, respiratory care, podiatry, mental-health counseling, occupational therapy, massage therapy, radiology, nursing-home care, pharmacy, and emergency medical services. Some of these are professions for which incarcerated people receive training inside, but people in need are denied their help and expertise because of these unnecessary and punitive waiting periods. 
• Integrate the business community with release. There should be direct communication between businesses and corrections facilities that enables residents to build connections with potential employers, grow their professional networks, and receive professional training to prepare for employment upon release. 
• Allow incarcerated people to hold jobs on the outside. As incarcerated people develop or hone their professional skills through programming inside, we need to open pathways to employment at free-world wages, including for those held at medium- and maximum-security facilities. There is no reason incarcerated people cannot teach classes, consult in areas of their speciality, offer contract services, or work remotely. Allowing incarcerated people to hold normal jobs at living wages will ease their re-entry, develop their skills, build an employment history, and enable them to support their families, fulfill any victims’ compensation they owe, and become taxpaying members of society. Why wouldn’t we want this? 
• Educate business owners and managers about existing incentives. A number of incentives already exist to support the hiring of currently or formerly incarcerated people. For example, there is the federal bonding program (which provides special insurance to employers) and the Worker Opportunity Tax Credit. More can be done to educate employers about these benefits. Jobs for the Future’s Fair Chance Employer Training Program is an excellent resource.
• Provide Universal Basic Income (UBI). Formerly incarcerated people would be greatly helped by a program that provides all citizens with a base level of financial security. There are nine universal basic income/cash-transfer programs currently in effect in different states.  As we better understand how best to implement such programs, they should be expanded nationwide.  

Transportation  

Maine’s public transportation infrastructure is notoriously dismal. Just like everyone else, those returning to society from prison need a car to search for work and housing, visit their probation officer, and attend to all the daily demands of life. Buying a car is much harder for those whose incarceration has ruined their credit score, starved them of savings and blown a hole in their employment history. This forces many into loans at unreasonably high interest rates, such that financing a car can end up costing more than housing. 

• Invest in public transport. Maine used to have a much more developed system of public transportation linking rural and urban areas. There is no reason we cannot reinvest in this infrastructure, and many reasons why we must, including the climate crisis. 
• Develop private-public transport partnerships. The government can work with the private sector (Uber, Lyft, car rental companies, rides arranged directly by employers, etc.) to create and support a stop-and-ride system that gets recently freed people to and from their jobs.  
• Create a low-interest loan fund for car loans for those below the poverty line. Since automobility is still a requirement for normal life in this country, poor people are excessively burdened by the high cost of cars, car loans, gas, maintenance, excise fees and insurance. Until our public transportation system is improved, poor people, including those returning from jail and prison, should be able to access low-interest loans to ensure their access to transportation.
• Delink traffic violations from probation revocations. Since “any contact with police can be rendered a violation of the terms of [probation or] parole,” a minor traffic violation can send someone back to jail or prison. This should never happen. 
• Remove excessive fines for traffic violations. In the U.S., you cannot be jailed for failing to pay your debts, and in Maine, you cannot be jailed for a traffic violation. And yet failure to pay a traffic fine can mushroom into late penalties, interest, a court warrant, a failure-to-appear-in-court charge, a license suspension, a fee for reinstatement, compounding court fees and, ultimately, arrest for driving without a license or driving after suspension. State lawmakers are considering huge increases in fines for driving while holding a cell phone and new fines for driving with snow on one’s vehicle. Like someone exiting onto an on-ramp, they’re heading in the wrong direction. 
• Limit license suspensions. Maine currently has 64 violations that lead to a license suspension, 59 of which carry fines that vary from $50 to $200 to lift the suspension. These fines do not include court fees. In 2021 alone, Maine issued 36,847 license suspensions. License revocations should be extremely limited, and only for actions that are truly dangerous to public safety, not for petty infractions. 

Medical Care and Wellbeing

Prison is an unhealthy environment that produces poor health outcomes. Health care in prison is generally low-quality, and incarceration itself is antithetical to well-being. Post-incarceration syndrome (PICS) is real — a mental disorder that occurs in those currently incarcerated or recently released, and its symptoms are most severe for those who endure extended periods of solitary confinement and caging. PICS can manifest as  institutionalized personality traits, post-traumatic-stress disorder, anti-social thinking and behavior, social- and sensory-deprivation syndrome, and substance-use disorders. Dealing with PICS requires a holistic approach to medical care and personal health. Some steps to address it include: 

• Assign health navigators to track the health care needs of those returning to society. This is perhaps most important for those managing substance-use challenges which, as previously noted, are a huge factor driving recidivism and probation violations.  
• Develop a transitional health care plan. Maintaining one’s prescriptions after re-entry is challenging. Prison medical providers can change or refuse to fill prescriptions ordered by doctors, and prescribed medications are only provided for a few weeks after release. After that, patients are on their own: there is no plan for how to transition prescriptions from the inside to the outside. Women have unique needs with regard to reproductive healthcare that often go unmet behind bars. Routine appointments for mammograms or pap smears involve shackles and jumpsuits, so many women forgo these preventative tests while incarcerated and continue to neglect their reproductive health post-release. Care must be taken to mitigate these effects.
• Extend MaineCare for the first year of re-entry. If a person does not meet MaineCare income-eligibility requirements after release from prison or jail, they usually go without health insurance or care. For the first year after re-entry, the income threshold needs to be adjusted downward for those working multiple low-income jobs that do not offer insurance. Everyone returning to society should be covered for a year. 

Community Support 

The world doesn’t stop when people go to jail or prison. Jobs are filled, both at work and in the home. Technology continues to evolve, as do family expectations. Not every hole can be filled, but people adjust — they find a way forward without you. Those who leave jail or prison expecting to quickly regain their stride are almost always disappointed. There needs to be an adjustment period between the inside and outside worlds. Most importantly, there needs to be a supportive community ready to welcome returning members home. Without support, mentoring and care, failure (and reincarceration) is much more likely than success. To interrupt these cycles of recidivism, we propose a few solutions.

• Support better coordinated re-entry services. The Maine Prisoner Re-entry Network currently employs three full-time Community Re-integration Specialists. These specialists can support only about 10 percent of those re-entering society from Maine’s prisons, pre- and post-release. Organizations like MPRN, Helping Incarcerated Individuals Transition, and Re-entry Sisters are in need of funding. Maine’s General Assistance program has new rules to help recently incarcerated people, but only some of the GA offices are enacting those rules. More funding is needed to support the hiring of additional reintegration specialists throughout the state.
• Establish direct support for incarcerated people and their families. Many people who wind up in jails and prisons never had a support network before, and in the wake of some harms, existing support networks are dissolved. It is vital that we ensure every incarcerated person has a community-based network of support as they prepare for their release. In addition to groups previously cited, organizations like the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, Maine Recovery Advocacy Project, the Augusta Recovery Re-entry Center, Restorative Justice Institute of Maine, Restorative Justice Project Maine, and Maine Coastal Regional Re-entry Center are doing great work that needs to be supported and expanded.
• Form re-entry community support groups in every county. If we really want to improve community safety, we need to establish community re-entry support groups to surround and embrace people coming home from jail or prison. When people feel connected, it increases their sense of safety. When people feel safe, they’re able to build confidence and reach out when they need help. A poorly kept secret is that people who have been incarcerated tend to have a really hard time asking for help. That doesn’t mean they don’t need it. This is a way every Mainer can contribute if they so choose. Start a group, join a group, or support a group.
• Offer free life-skills courses. Many incarcerated people have lived full lives before jail or prison, but many others have not. A great number of those returning need help securing the basic necessities of life, which these days includes much more than clothing, food and shelter. Both in-person and online classes can help freed people develop the skills they need to navigate modern life post-release.
• Implement a reparative reintegration process. Whenever someone goes to jail or prison, someone else is hurt by their absence. Family members of incarcerated people suffer right along with them. To better support social and family reintegration, there needs to be some type of reparative process put in place. There is a great model for this created by Community Mediation of Maryland that has also been reproduced with success in Massachusetts. This is an evidence-based re-entry mediation process. Restorative justice organizations would be well suited to take on this task.
• Provide special support for returning mothers. Many women sent to prison are the heads of households and primary caretakers of children and elderly parents. Women typically shoulder much larger burdens within their families than men do, and their need for greater support post-release should be recognized as programs are developed and expanded. 

Reform the criminal code

This point is central to our entire three-part series, and we include it here to highlight some of the broad failures of our criminal legal system. The public safety “reforms” Maine adopted back in 1976 resulted in more people going to prison for longer sentences, instituted life-without-parole sentences, and dramatically lengthened the amount of time young adults spend behind bars. These “tough on crime” and “War on Drugs” measures have caused immeasurable harm, trauma and impoverishment wholly unnecessary for maintaining public safety. Maine’s public spending on incarceration now outpaces our expenditures on education, mental health and substance-use disorder treatment. The disco-era “reforms” also eliminated the ability of the state to adjust sentences in recognition of rehabilitation. It’s time for real reform of Maine’s criminal legal system to prioritize public safety over punishment, rehabilitation over warehousing, restorative pathways to re-entry over absurdly long sentences, and genuine support for those who have been harmed and those seeking redemption for wrongs. Let’s start with these changes:

• Retroactively eradicate “truth in sentencing” laws that mandate people serve their full court-ordered sentences without regard for rehabilitation, illness, family needs or the public good.
• Retroactively eradicate Life Without Parole, a sentence viewed almost everywhere else in the world as abhorrent and excessively cruel. 
• Retroactively eradicate lengthy sentences for emerging adults, in the recognition that young adults are still maturing and their likelihood of committing harm drops dramatically after their mid-30s.
• Vastly reduce the length of sentences, in recognition of the recommendations of legal experts like the American Bar Association, which calls for sentencing review after 10 years. 
• Vastly reduce the number of offenses that carry a prison sentence. 
• Cap all sentences at 45 years.
• Retroactively end accomplice liability for felony murder. 
• Reinstate presumptive parole so that people who pose no risk to others can return to society as contributing family and community members.
• Expand good time credits to allow people to return to their communities sooner.  
• Amend Maine’s Constitution to allow people to return home before the end of their sentence when experts determine they can safely do so. Currently, the only way to release people before their sentence ends is through gubernatorial clemency, which has hardly ever been granted. We need other options: through the courts, a board of experts, the medical community, and a parole board. 

Conclusion

At the start of this series, we said that to us, abolition is a process of working toward a society that prioritizes the healing of trauma, creating strong community bonds, investing in services and resources people need to live a healthy and dignified life, confronting and dismantling systems of oppression, and responding to harm with practices of accountability and justice. Abolition means putting in place the support structures and harm-remediation systems that would make prisons and jails obsolete, while making society safer and healthier. In short, decarceration is the pathway to abolition, based in building an entirely new society that invests in safety and security for everyone. 

Looking into the future, we are struck by Gov. Janet Mills’ recent budget. It includes a $45 million increase for the DOC and an $80 million increase for policing, but minimal increases in funding for mental health and substance-use treatment. Let’s imagine for a moment what Maine’s communities could look like if that $125 million was spent instead on some of the programs and initiatives outlined in this series. Rather than expanding the long arm of incarceration and repression, what if that $125 million went to facilitating restoration, rehabilitation, redemption and healing?

We long for the day when the state budget reflects the real needs of Maine’s people. With your help, we hope to eventually see that day. To those of you who read through each part of this series, we want to say thank you. This has been a long, exciting, sometimes daunting journey. We didn’t cover all of the needs, nor all the stories, nor all the solutions. This is just the beginning, the first swing at radical visioning of what a healed and safe Maine could look like. We are moving forward into this future with a determined hope that, even if we don’t see it to its full fruition, we might witness the first steps toward a restorative, decarcerated, abolitionist, healing-centered, collaborative community throughout Maine.

For assistance with this series, we are grateful to Linda Small of Re-entry Sisters, Bruce King of Maine Inside Out, Erica King of CEPP, Andre Hicks of Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition (MPAC), Jan Collins of MPAC, the Office of the Secretary of State, Chris in MSP, Jim in MSP, and Bruce Noddin of Maine Prisoner Re-entry Network.

Leo Hylton is a recent Master’s graduate of George Mason University’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, currently incarcerated at Maine State Prison. His education and work are focused on Social Justice Advocacy and Activism, with a vision toward an abolitionist future. You can reach him at: Leo Hylton #70199, 807 Cushing Rd., Warren, ME 04864, or leoshininglight@gmail.com.

Catherine Besteman is an abolitionist educator at Colby College. Her research and practice engage the public humanities to explore abolitionist possibilities in Maine. In addition to the Freedom & Captivity initiative, she has researched and published on security, militarism, displacement, and community-based activism and transformation, focused on Somalia, South Africa, and the U.S. Her recent work has been supported by fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations.