Magnusson said prison authorities told him the only new prohibition was of razor blades. For some time, Supermax prisoners have been given a nub to fit over a finger with which to clean their teeth.
In Brine’s letter, as read to the Phoenix, he said several inmates, including himself, vowed to undertake a long strike: “We’re going IRA on this shit” — referring to the lengthy Irish Republican Army prisoner hunger strikes during Northern Ireland conflicts of decades past.
Brine is in prison for attempted murder and aggravated assault. Brown is serving 58 years for burglary.
The maximum-security Supermax keeps prisoners in their cells for 23 hours a day. Its incarceration of severely mentally ill prisoners, such as suicide victim Rideout, has come under strong criticism from civil-liberties and mental-health groups.
Rideout, who was buried in Belgrade Tuesday, was the third man to kill himself in the Supermax and its adjacent psychiatric unit in seven years. The state police are investigating his death.
Related:
Stonewalling is normal, Secret, unaccountable, and co-opted, Pressure rising, More 
- Stonewalling is normal
I could cite many examples of the difficulty in reporting to the Maine public what goes on behind the cement and bureaucratic walls of the public’s prison system — especially, in reporting brutal practices. I will give just a few.
- Secret, unaccountable, and co-opted
The state prison in Warren has been hammered in recent months by an inmate murder and other violence, a prisoner hunger strike, legislative investigations exposing mismanagement and poor guard morale, and a request by human-rights groups for a federal probe of prisoner mistreatment.
- Pressure rising
Four months ago, a Phoenix investigative series revealed abuses of inmates at the “Supermax,” a 100-bed, solitary-confinement, maximum-security facility inside the Maine State Prison in Warren; since our articles were published, several important developments have taken place.
- Letters to the Portland editor: May 4, 2007
God bless the First Amendment.
- The loud business drumbeat
The majority legislative Dems do not share Baldacci’s enthusiasm for these cuts, but they seem resigned to them.
- Budget cuts
“Things are as tough at the prison right now as I’ve seen them in a long time,” state Corrections commissioner Martin Magnusson told the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on July 29. He spoke about the consequences of the staff cuts that the 915-inmate, 410-employee Maine State Prison in Warren has had to endure.
- Falling down
Critics of the state Department of Corrections say the hostage-taking last June at the Maine State Prison dramatically illustrates that the concrete, high-tech lockup in Warren is showing cracks from stress on the prison guards.
- Corrections changes
Like a movie hero, the NAACP’s new, young 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.
- Lockdown
If you were a reporter and you received a letter like the one excerpted below, what would you make of it? Lance Tapley discusses reporting the prisons
- Prison in turmoil
Will reform have to wait for a new governor?
- Prisoners’ support services slashed
Governor John Baldacci announced on December 16 that he had taken significant steps toward warehousing prisoners instead of rehabilitating them.
- Less
Topics:
This Just In
, Health and Fitness, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Mental Health, More
, Health and Fitness, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Mental Health, Prisons, Law Enforcement, Suicide, Protests and Demonstrations, Irish Republican Army, Deane Brown, Martin Magnusson, Less
