< Haute or Not
Maine Prisons
The Portland Phoenix’s prison investigation, focusing on the Maine supermax and prisoner abuse.
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Torture in Maine's Prison | November 11, 2005
November 11, 2005 | In our initial story, prisoners described supermax conditions, especially solitary confinement of the mentally ill, that met United Nations definitions of torture. An online video showed guards beating an inmate in a "cell extraction." (Corrections instituted some reforms, but basic conditions remain.) | By Lance Tapley -
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Video of an "extraction" at the Maine State Prison | November 11, 2005
A WARNING TO POTENTIAL VIEWERS: These extremely explicit and graphic scenes are real. -
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Arbitrary imprisonment | July 21, 2006
July 21, 2006 | A jury found supermax prisoner Michael James not guilty because of insanity in 10 assaults on guards, but the state disobeyed a judge's order to place him in a mental hospital. (It took his lawyers a year to have him placed there.) -
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Lockdown: What do prison officials have to hide? | December 15, 2006
December 15, 2006 | Deane Brown, our chief inmate informant, was sent to the Maryland supermax to prevent him from revealing more about prison conditions, and officials effectively banned us from the prisons by placing unacceptable restrictions on coverage. (Media organizations protested, but it took a year before we could interview inmates on acceptable terms.) | By Lance Tapley -
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Sluggish response to suicide: Supermax watch | January 5, 2007
January 5, 2007 | Eyewitnesses said a guard taunted mentally ill supermax inmate Ryan Rideout to kill himself, then let him hang a while when he found him. Rideout died. (The guard was fired.) | By Lance Tapley -
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Punish the mentally ill! | April 13, 2007
Maine attorney general office pursues controversial legislation that would punish severely mentally ill prisoners before treating them | By Lance Tapley -
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Prisoners as commodities | April 27, 2007
April 27, 2007 | Governor Baldacci attempted to send prisoners to a Corrections Corporation of America lockup in Oklahoma. The company's lobbyist, we revealed, was a Baldacci fundraiser and confidant. (The Legislature blocked the transfer.) | By Lance Tapley -
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Maine prison bosses violate court orders | June 29, 2007
June 29, 2007 | We discovered Corrections had ignored 1970s federal court orders requiring prisoner access to the press. (Access improved.) | By Lance Tapley -
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Group seeks to hold Maine to UN standard | August 31, 2007
Portland-based prison activists knock on Munjoy Hill doors collecting signatures to oppose the “legalized abuse of prisoners” in Maine and throughout the country | By Jeff Inglis -
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Stabbed in the back | September 14, 2007
September 14, 2007 | By sending him to a violent out-of-state prison, Corrections endangered the life of a state prison inmate who had revealed an escape plot and prevented a bloodbath, (Corrections moved him to a safer prison.) | By Lance Tapley -
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Wave of reform | February 8, 2008
There is now a chance to fix Maine’s broken corrections system, but only if the public speaks up | By Lance Tapley -
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Time for a clean sweep?: A former guard calls for prison reform | July 25, 2008
In early 2007, Rhonda Dawson, a thoughtful, candid, 45-year-old African-American guard at the Maine State Prison in Warren, quit her job after four years because, she says, of racist taunting from her fellow correctional officers | By Lance Tapley -
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Falling down: Mistreatment of Maine prison guards lands heavily on inmates | November 7, 2008
November 7, 2008 | Abused guards — overworked, underpaid, poorly managed, stressed — tended to abuse prisoners and didn't last long. (Little has changed.) | By Lance Tapley -
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Corrections changes: NAACP leader challenges Maine prison policies | December 12, 2008
NAACP national president Benjamin Jealous swept into the 900-inmate Maine State Prison in Warren on Monday, quelling protests among the prisoners and, at least temporarily, rescuing the organization’s prison chapter from being snuffed out by state corrections officials | By Lance Tapley -
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