After discovering the Picariello order, I asked Corrections for originals of letters that prisoners told me they had written and mailed to me but I never received. I also requested, under the Freedom of Access Act, a list of letters from Maine State Prison inmates to anyone in the news media that were confiscated since late 2005.
Assistant Attorney General Diane Sleek replied, “If there are any letters from prisoners to the news media which were censored or confiscated, something which I neither confirm nor deny, that would have been done for valid security reasons and within the law.” Attorney General Steven Rowe says he backs her up.
The Picariello order forbids censorship of letters from inmates to reporters unless the letters contain “contraband” or a “plan of escape or device for evading prison regulations.” Since inmates know their mail may be read by prison authorities, their insertion of contraband or escape plans or devices into letters is extremely unlikely.
I also asked Sleek if the Heald order’s due-process requirements were followed in the department’s recent transfer of state prisoners to county jails and in formulating plans to transfer 125 inmates to a private prison in Oklahoma. Both actions were needed, the department said, because of overcrowding in the prisons. (Recently, after public and legislative opposition, the Baldacci administration dropped the plan to ship inmates out of state.)
Sleek replied, “per the policy of this office,” that she will not comment on this subject because of the Deane Brown case.
“No comment” is a common response from state officials on all these issues.
Related:
Prison in turmoil, Stonewalling is normal, Pressure rising, More 
- Prison in turmoil
Will reform have to wait for a new governor?
- 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.
- 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 on the prison series
Portland readers respond
- We’re all doing time
The facts are almost unbelievable: As a nation, our incarceration rate is five times what it was 30 years ago and the highest in the world.
- Imprisoned facts
Although I had already written a lot about abuse in the prison, this May 21 interview with Dorney, a 28-year-old Portland man serving 20 years for assault, was what I had been waiting for.
- An insult to justice
Portland Phoenix freelancer Lance Tapley was given the Maine State Bar Association's Excellence in Legal Journalism Award last week at the association's annual meeting.
- Letters to the Portland Editor, November 14, 2008
Employees of our prisons and jails deserve better wages and in-depth training.
- Dangerous slurs
A heavily tattooed, self-described Satanist serving a life sentence for savagely murdering two people in Augusta in 1998 — his 16-year-old stepdaughter and his 87-year-old former landlady — inmate John L’Heureux, 39, is probably not the man Maine’s gay-rights groups would choose to represent their cause in the state prison, if they were inclined to choose anyone there.
- Wave of reform
A wave of change is moving swiftly toward Maine’s jails and prisons. It could bring major reform — or a bureaucratic jumble.
- Less than equal
This story has a bias. It’s in favor of human rights for all people.
- Less
Topics:
News Features
, Health and Fitness, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Mental Health, More
, Health and Fitness, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Mental Health, Prisons, Deane Brown, G. Steven Rowe, Michael James, Gary Watland, Maine Correctional Center, Less
