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Maine State Prison & Supermax Watch.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact Ron Huber 975-0655 Call for investigation of Warden Jeffrey Merrill's management of Maine State Prison.
Warren. The Maine State Prison has become a cesspool of corruption under the helm of warden Jeffrey Merrill and his immediate underlings, a growing chorus of critics, including guards, say. Illegal diversion of money, bribery-based advancement for prison workers, routine violations of prisoners' and guards' constitutional and human rights, and a scofflaw approach to judicial decisions reveal a lawless facility in need of a major overhaul. This is the conclusion of citizens concerned with
prison reform, who are calling on newly re-elected governor John
Baldacci and the Maine legislature to take steps to rectify the
situation.
The corruption is so institutionalized under Merrill, they said,
that his removal from office may be necessary to even begin to untangle
the complex patterns of unlawful and unethical activities taking
place at the prison.
“We have here a prison seeking to hide its problems, to deny them
while they fester and spread,” said Reverend Dewey Fagerburg, in a
recent letter to supporters of the Maine state prison branch of the
NAACP that was copied to Governor John Baldacci and attorney general
Steven Rowe. “Denial of grievances and appeal, denial of creative programs
developed by inmates, denial of solutions to problems....I have felt
the frustration of inmates seeking to be part of the solution put
down, targeted, intimidated, threatened and harassed,” he wrote.
The situation is so bad that guards have been giving information to inmates detailing the extent of corruption in hopes that they will communicate the facts to the media. For more than a year, inmate Deane Brown served as a whistleblower, appearing regularly on a midcoast Maine community radio show and detailing a wide variety of official misconduct by prison officials. His efforts, and those of investigative reporter Lance Tapley, have led to a dramatic drop in the use of torture at the prison. “Mr. Brown and those courageous guards should be receiving accolades for their efforts” said radio news producer Ron Huber who airs a show on WRFR Community Radio, in Rockland Maine.
“Instead, shortly after Brown released a memo given him by a prison guard (excerpts in large type throughout this release) that details rampant corruption and prisoner and guard abuse at the state prison, he was taken from his cell in the middle of the night November 8th and secretly shipped to a high security prison in Maryland, where he was placed in solitary confinement and forbidden the right to contact his lawyer, his loved ones and his radio station.” Huber said Brown's whereabouts would have remained a mystery had it not been for an official at the Maryland Supermax prison, who contacted a friend of Brown's in Maine revealing his incarceration there. Maryland corrections officials, baffled by his appearance in their high security facility, have released him from solitary confinement, after a review of his records, and are now apparently making plans to send him on--possibly back to Maine!
The Mele memo was aired in its entirety on Huber's Weekend Roundtable radio show, and, along with some explanatory notes, will shortly be sent to the attorney general and to members of the Maine legislature's criminal justice committee, Huber said. “This heavyhanded effort on the part of corrections officials to
put an end to revelations of official misconduct will fail,“ said
Huber, noting that guards are now sending information covertly to an
investigative reporter for a New England newspaper.
Michael Parker, president of the Maine state prison's branch of the NAACP ,voiced frustration that an initiative by inmates to carry out a voter registration drive and get representatives of the various political parties give presentations to interested prisoners was turned down by the prison administration. “Prisoners do not feel connected to society.” Parker wrote. “By
exercising their right to vote and becoming part of the process, we
hope they make the connection and begin to see that they have a
voice and it counts.”
Beyond the removal of the present warden, Maine needs to adopt a
system of citizen oversight of its prison system, Huber said. “Just
as decisions and policies of the Maine Department of Environmental
Protection are overseen by a citizen review board, so too should the
Department of Corrections. This panel of informed citizens will
shed light on inappropriate practices, and encourage sound ones.”
”We need to encourage the administration to treat inmates as part of the solution,” said Reverend Fagerburg. “Not just problems to be warehoused and the community kept out.”
Maine State Prison Watch
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