Anatomy of a Criminal
by Beth Berry, student, University of Maine.

Inmate Deane Brown may as well have MADE IN MAINE stamped on his forehead. The finished product is an inmate serving 59 years at the Maine StatePrison, which still has baby teeth and diabetes. Deane was born the fifth of six children, to alcoholic parents on New Years Day 1964, at Knox hospital in Rockland, Maine. By the age of 4, he was diagnosed with what is now known as Attention Deficit Disorder, and prescribed medication. He was sent to live with his aunt in Connecticut fora short time, and returned home to Rockland.

Deane's father allowed him to finish his cigarettes and beer. At age 5,Deane wore a green harness with silver buckles and a short chain whichlocked him to the kitchen sink of their trailer. He was placed in a laundrybasket to insulate him from the floor. He tried his father's keys to openthe lock, but they didn't work. Determined to be free, he picked the lockwith his younger sister's barrette. When Deane's father found him sittingon the couch, he threw him into the trailer wall so hard that Deane stuck inthe wall.

One month before Deane's 7th birthday he was sent to Pineland forpsychological testing. Dr. Strouder was amazed that Deane took apart hiswatch and put it back together again. He was placed in a room forobservation and rigged up a train to the door and made it go across theroom. Deane beat the psychiatrist at chess. The psychiatrist would notallow Deane to have the birthday cake his mother brought, so he broke theashtray he had made her. He felt he was denied his mothers love. He was molested at Pineland.

By age 7 or 8, Deane was put on Ritalin and sent to live at Sweetsir, wherehe was physically abused for 3 or 4 years. From Sweetsir he was sent to theBancroft school at age 11, and continued medication for the ADD. When Deanewas 13, the staff at Bancroft had Deane drive their van up a steep hill,which they could not seem to do. He obviously had no license. He had amarijuana joint he took from a councilor which he decided he liked betterthan the pharmaceuticals which caused uncontrollable twitching, convulsing,itching, and once he accidentally overdosed. From Bancroft, Deane was sentto Élan, and taken off medication.

Élan was a for profit cult licensed by the State of Maine, which utilizedphysically and emotionally brutal tactics, such as cowboy ass kickings whereDeane was violently beaten by ten men at the command of the director,spankings with a cutting board, isolation, shaming, humiliation in front of hundreds,chain gangs, spitting and screaming in ones face, and constant cleaning andbeing yelled at. Defying Dorothea Dix's model, Élan combined people frommental hospitals, children of politicians, violent criminals and childrenwho had committed no crimes at all. Some juveniles were sent there by courtorders, others by wealthy parents, others by psychiatrists, and others byschool districts(who used special education money). Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was ordered to beat Deane in front of over 150 forced onlookers. The beating was so severe that Deane dove through a window to escape the beating. Scars remain on his hands from the glass.

Deane found himself free at 17 with no idea of how to fit into society. Hismother kicked him out. He got drunk and broke into a pawn shop. He wasarrested and held at Knox County Jail. Then he was sent to the Maine YouthCenter. While at the Maine Youth Center he developed a cigarette craving.He started the State truck he was sent to clean with a paper clip and waswaved through the gate. He then had a stranger buy him cigarettes and abeer, at a nearby convenience store. Then he drove down I-95, and wassurrounded at the border bridge by 6 cruisers. He refused to exit thevehicle at gunpoint until he was sick of chain smoking. He was arrested andheld at the York County Jail, in a holding cell with a paddle lock. Hisshoestrings, belt and cigarettes were left on a nearby counter. Deanepicked the lock and as the MYC people came to transport him, he escaped anddrove the state truck back to the MYC undetected. He was rewarded with acigarette.

Deane was sent back to Élan to work as the maintenance man. He was firedafter about a month. He went home to Rockland where his mother put him on abus for the MYC. He got off the bus in Thomaston to see his father who alsokicked him out. Deane called the Knox County Sheriff's department who drovehim back to the MYC.

Tired of the juveniles at the MYC Deane asked to go tothe Cumberland County jail, where he remained until his 18th birthday. Hewas given a bus ticket home, but stayed at a rooming house in Rockland for 1night. He decided to go to his friend from Élan in New Hampshire.

Onemonth later, he tried acid, and on a bet by the dealer, broke into severalstores. A locksmith said it would take a long time to pick an Arrow 921kdeadbolt, but witnesses testified Deane had it off in less than a minute.His partners in crime served a couple months, but Deane the youngest at 18,served 10 years and 8 months in the New Hampshire State Prison.

Both ofDeane's parents died during that time. Deane used a razor to attempt suicide, and several horizontal slice marks remain on his inner wrist straight up his forearm.

Deane was paroled and left prison with a bus ticket, one hundred dollars andthe assurance by the authorities that he'd never last outside prison. Thepolice said he wasn't welcome in New Hampshire, so he stayed with hisyounger sister in Rockland, in 1993. His father's friend got him a job as aMaintenance man, but he was fired for lack of experience.

He held a fishingjob in Alaska, and returned to Maine to do roofing and siding. Deane wasfinally enjoying life. The taste of food outside an institution didn't takemuch getting used to. His brother, a police officer, got him a job as a barbouncer. He drank to celebrate his first year of freedom.

Deane was convicted of burglary in April of 1995. His alleged partners incrime served a year, four years, and no time. Deane was given the title ofringleader and sentenced to 59 years at the Maine State Prison. Two yearsago Deane's brother was murdered, and the murderer received only a 40 yearsentence.

Just recently a social worker had Deane pick open his locked file cabinet.He is forever banished from society for using the only trade he knew tosurvive from age 5.

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