Residents of Washington County have accused Governor Paul LePage of “Gestapo” tactics in the closure of Downeast Correctional Facility. In the rush to condemn the emptying of DCF, two crucial questions were overlooked: how does the closing effect outcomes for inmates throughout the system? And, how does the closing effect community safety?
Essential background information includes two important facts. According to the New England Public Policy Center, Maine has the highest recidivism rate in New England. Fifty-seven percent of those who serve time in Maine will re-offend within three years of release.
The second important fact is Maine’s prison population continues to rise despite falling crime rates. According to Maine’s Department of Corrections statistics, Maine’s prison population rose to an all-time high of 2414 inmates in 2017. That is an increase of 25 percent (489 inmates) in the four years since a previous high in 2013 – a shocking figure.
Why is Maine’s recidivism rate so high, and how does closing Downeast Correctional Facility effect those numbers? The federal government (see the report titled Roadmap to Reentry) and many individual states have taken steps to correct the last four decades of mass incarceration by implementing strong reentry programs. These ease a former inmates transition back to society and reduce recidivism rates. Maine, under the leadership of Paul LePage, has done the opposite.
More money has gone to buildings and less money has gone to rehabilitation. In 2015, furlough programs that allow inmates to arrange for housing, employment, education, participation in treatment, and maintain and/or re-establish family ties have been decreased from five years to two years prior to release. No matter what the length of an individuals sentence, rehabilitation programs for addiction are not available to inmates until the two years before release. Most qualified inmates will never go through a reentry program.
That is what made Downeast Correctional Facility so important. By closing Downeast, 150 minimum security reentry beds were lost. Downeast offered education classes, rehabilitation programming, training in welding, building trades, clothing manufacture, but more importantly, it offered the opportunity for paid employment in the community.
Inmates who do not go through reentry programs leave prison with the shirt on their back, their belongings in a garbage bag and, if they are lucky, a bus ticket to the location of their choice. If they go home, they will become a burden to already financially stressed families. If they have no family, they become the responsibility of whatever community they land in. With a criminal record, no job skills, and lacking an education, it is extremely difficult to find employment. Is it any wonder that many turn to the underground community to survive?
Newspapers around the state reported that Downeast inmates were transported to Mountain View Correctional Facility. Some did, but there was not enough room for all of Downeast’s census to be housed at Mountain View. Some were transported to Bolduc minimum reentry facility in Warren, and others were transported to Maine State Prison. Maine State Prison is a medium and maximum security facility. There are no reentry programs. Since all of the medium pods were already filled, the new inmates were housed in the maximum facility. Already, approaching capacity, MSP has been forced to house medium classification inmates in its Special Management Unit.
We know that closing Downeast Correctional Facility will have a negative effect on the outcomes of many individual prisoners. It has insured that many Washington County employers were left without employees and many inmates will be released without resources. The closure has also insured that many communities will be forced to absorb the outcome. Without adequate reentry services Maine’s recidivism rates are not likely to improve and we can expect communities to suffer additional criminal activity.
Governor LePage has touted the closing of the Downeast Correctional Facility as a $5 million savings for the people of Maine. However, the decision simply transfers the burden for reentry and rehabilitation to other correctional facilities, and to local communities who already suffer the consequences of increased recidivism.
Jan Collins
Assistant Coordinator
Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition
Wilton
Maybe, the businesses in Washington county, should hire out of the populace, rather then the slave labor of the prison. Two types of inmates made up the population of the prison, multiple class C offenders with a year or more that local jails can’t hold any more, and those convicted of sex crimes. Sheriff Nichols of Franklin county for example, reworked his budget and streamlined the workforce in order to reopen the Franklin County Detention Center to house inmates up to a year rather than the three days that the State Board of Corrections had limited it to due to funding constraints. 80% of Maine’s inmate population is there for stupid crimes multiple traffic infractions, drug offenses,sex offenses, we have very few murderers relatively speaking. Relapse for opiate addiction is around 90%. That is not a program or lack there of problem, that is a people problem. People willingly choose to do drugs, just like people willingly break the law. Taking pity on people who willingly throw their lives away is not something I do, nor should anybody. All of these programs that exist inside the prison, exist outside the prison.
To Hrtlss Bstrd, Much of your response is inaccurate. 1. Not enough of the local populace is applying for the jobs the prisoners have primarily because they are seasonal and do not provide a year round middle class living income, so the locals seek work that will keep them employed year round. 2. It is not slave labor. The prisoners are paid the same wages as non-prisoners, with withholding for taxes, prison room and board, outstanding fines, court ordered restitution, child support payments, and they bank what is left to have money when they finish their sentence. 3. The “type” of inmates at DCF has nothing to do with what they were convicted of. Drugs users, traffickers, sex offenders, murderers, rapists, habitual offenders of any class of crime. Prisoners “earn” their way to DCF by completing the majority of their sentence at other facilities, doing ‘good time’ at those facilities, and other factors in a vetting process. The prisoners must then continue doing good time at DCF or they transferred back to a stricter facility. 4. Jails and prisons are not the same thing. Jail belong to the county. Prisons belong to the state. Prisoners in overcrowded jails are not routinely housed in prisons for a variety of reasons. One being many in jail have not been sentenced; they are waiting for trial. By law, they absolutely cannot be housed in a state prison. 5. Merely warehousing people in jail or prison for drug related crimes has had no significant effect. So why are we spending so much taxpayer money on doing the same thing that doesn’t work over and over? If more ‘programs’ were available inside prison, there is a higher likelihood of drug offenders changing their criminal ways and becoming citizens who will work legally and pay taxes. The testimonials are legion of former DCF prisoners doing just that. 6. It’s not pity. Far from it. It’s an attempt to put taxpayer money toward something that’s productive
I used to work at the Maine State Prison back in the mid 80’s. For some prisoners who end up in prison it is the first time they have had 3 squares and a bed, which is some of the reason they are there in the first place, and why they end up back there.
Ruth, I agree with your statements. It’s interesting that the news has presented this whole thing as a big inconvenience to the people in Washington County. I’m glad to see someone is willing to speak out on how the closing of DCF affects the inmates. And no, I don’t feel sorry for them. If they do a crime, they should do the time. But, as a citizen and a human being, I would prefer it if they were given the skills they need to be successful contributing members of society when they are released.
HTLSS, a crime is a crime, not a “stupid crime.” i.e. sex offenses are bad, just as murder is bad. There is always a victim who deserves to know that justice is served. Just ask the children under 12 who are raped by their fathers; sex crime.
Ruth, I used to live in Machias, there are plenty of jobs in the area that pay a livable wage. I know migrant workers that make damn good money raking blueberries. Helen’s and the Blue Bird both pay a livable wage. Packing fish and bait, scallops all pays. You know why people don’t take those jobs? Because, Americans are under the impression that unless they are making half a million a year to do menial jobs, the jobs are not worth doing. $25,000 a year is better than $0. Housing is Affordable, I paid $600 a month with heat and hot water, that’s what like $7000 a year? Plus lights, $16,000 is easily a livable income.
Face, All crimes are stupid, committed by stupid people who willingly break the law and deserve a lot less than what they get in prison. They deserve one meal and the cold floor, no cots. Now it seems like the only thing they lose is, the ability to walk out the front door when they want.
I agree with Ms. Collins and she is absolutely right. LePage snuck out the prisoners before daybreak. He just wants to brag when he leaves office about his budget that prevents healthcare for thousands, treats inmates like cattle and has no regard for those who are mentally ill, which is a lot of the prisoners. I think he is mean. I also think his goal is the white house. Heaven forbid!!!!