For James, there is a dark lining to the silver cloud he now appears to be under. If he gets better, he gets closer to going back to prison, even if he wins the Maine Supreme Court battle and his sentence runs while he is in the hospital. He now has nine years left.
If his recovery allowed him to go to the prison’s general population, of course, he would have many of the same privileges — and possibly more than — he has gained at Riverview.
But he does not want to go back to prison.
“My goal is to stay here, get the time to run concurrent, and get a sentence reduction,” he said.
For more on Michael James, see “Arbitrary Imprisonment,” by Lance Tapley, July 19, 2006.
Related:
Punish the mentally ill!, Arbitrary imprisonment, Pressure rising, More 
- Punish the mentally ill!
Officials in Maine attorney general Steven Rowe’s office recently made a legislative effort regarding mentally ill prisoners in a controversial way.
- Arbitrary imprisonment
Joseph Steinberger thought he had won one of the most important trials of his legal career.
- 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.
- Sluggish response to suicide
An eyewitness to the suicide of Ryan Rideout, a 25-year-old, severely mentally ill Augusta man who hanged himself with his bedding in his Maine State Prison Supermax cell on October 5, calls into question the official version of events.
- Dangerous waits for psychiatric evaluations?
State officials admit delays for jail-inmate psychiatric evaluations have increased considerably.
- 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.
- The mentally ill, criminalized
She is afraid he will continue to be kept in the Supermax, which will make him worse, she says.
- Rise of psychosurgery
This article originally appeared in the March 11, 1972 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
- Putting an end to the hunger strike
Maine State Prison officials ended a hunger strike involving at least 10 inmates of the solitary-confinement Supermax unit in Warren by threatening to withhold the strikers’ psychotropic medications, according to allegations by an inmate who participated in the strike.
- Death in the Supermax
A 25-year-old inmate killed himself in the state’s Supermax prison on October 5, corrections officers say. But while a Rockland newspaper quoted the prison warden as saying the inmate was not considered a suicide risk, Ryan Rideout had a long history of mental illness and suicidal behavior.
- State sued over inmate’s death
As severely mentally ill Maine State Prison inmate Ryan Rideout prepared to hang himself from a sprinkler in his cell on the night of October 5, 2006, other inmates frantically pressed panic buttons in their cells.
- 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, Maine Supreme Judicial Court, Michael James, Riverview Psychiatric Center, Less
