Maine Speaker of the House defied by Corrections Commissioner over state's "Punitive Exile" policy.

Listen to a reading of the names of 21 exiled Mainers in the Maine Hall of Flags. (short MP3)
During the Baldacci administration, Mainer inmates are being spirited off to distant states' prisons, as punishment for rocking the corrections boat on poor prison conditions and/or institutional corruption. Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree, Senator Chris Rector and other legislators have been told by Corrections Commissioner Magnusson that his department's exile policies are "confidential" , and he denied their requests for an explanation of his punitive exile policy.

Case# 1. The Exiling of Deane Rowland Brown: Maine prison inmate Deane Rowland Brown was exiled as a political prisoner to a Maryland high security prison in retaliation for his investigative reporting on WRFR FM Community Radio and with Portland Phoenix writer Lance Tapley about what even prison guards considered a failing, corrupted regime rife with nepotism and favoritism under Commissioner Magnusson. *** Brown also served as a writer correspondent to WRFR from May to November 2005

Write Deane in exile: Deane R. Brown #339621, Western Correctional Institution 13800 McMullen Highway, S.W.,Cumberland, Maryland 21502 Pictures and Audio from the Jan 28, 08 public hearing on LD 2029 before the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety.
Read a letter to the editor by a concerned citizen. Read Brown's blog on his 6 months in Maine Supermax

April 5, 2008 update. Brown files motion for preliminary injunction in federal court in Bangor. Charges violations of right due Maine prisoners.

January 31, 2008 Update.Deane is STILL in solitary confinement at MCAC, reported sighting in a Maine prison were not substantiated. Concern continues of potential transfer to a remote gang-infested prison in the distant western Maryland Panhandle. Maryland's new Siberia for state prisons. Why was the security rating of this man abruptly heightened, making him eligible for transfer into this literally worst of the worst facility? Tapley on Mass Torture in America (including Maine)

September 2007 Update 9/26/07: Writer Lance Tapley excoriates Baldacci Administration for willfully ducking responsibility for human rights violations in Brown's Maryland prison cell.
9/12/07. Prison Rewards exiled hero-inmate with a stab in the back!
9/6/07Governor Baldacci's legal counsel Karla Black replies to WRFR letter of 8/29/07

August 2007 update: 8/29/07 Letter to Governor Baldacci from WRFR news producer Ron Huber

Deane's lawyer Lynne Williams interviewed 8/18/07 (15 minute mp3) about Deane's federal lawsuit challenging his censoring and exile.

Listen to Deane Brown's Reports on MP3 <

LETTERS
To and from WRFR and Prison officials.

From Exile
August 14, 2007. "This place has reclassified me from medium custody to maximum, meaning that I belong and must be kept with the absolute worst of the worst. But why? To shut me up and to punish me,that's why. "

June 17, 2007 "There are so many people supporting me to win this battle --so many who will see a better day if I win..."