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Miraculous Appearances

Phoenix questions prompt action
Two weeks after the Phoenix began its prison Board of Visitors interviews, which revealed the group had not produced annual reports as required by law and had not met with the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee in years, reports for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 suddenly materialized.
By LANCE TAPLEY | August 17, 2009

Secret, unaccountable, and co-opted

If the prison Board of Visitors had done its job, it might have helped prevent several recent tragedies
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.
By LANCE TAPLEY | August 17, 2009

Budget cuts

Prison staffing crisis hits perilous level
“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.
By LANCE TAPLEY | August 05, 2009

Freelance in Maine

Four decades of advocacy journalism
" Stop the press!" The press stopped.
By LANCE TAPLEY | August 03, 2009

Our journalism echoes our politics

If the press reflects the times, which way will it go now?
Why won’t the Maine press inquire deeply into major issues?
By LANCE TAPLEY | August 03, 2009

Federal investigation requested

More prison turmoil
Stirred into action by the murder of a wheelchair-bound prisoner, human-rights activists have asked the federal Department of Justice to investigate the treatment of Maine State Prison inmates.
By LANCE TAPLEY | July 22, 2009

Prison in turmoil

Investigators probe killing, stabbing, corruption allegations
Will reform have to wait for a new governor?
By LANCE TAPLEY | June 17, 2009

Stickin' it to the poor

Right wing celebrates state budget
The Maine Heritage Policy Center, a right-wing Portland think tank, has been bragging in news releases about how state leaders have followed its advice, approving a two-year state-government budget that, among other cuts, slashes school aid, programs for the needy, and state-employee pay.
By LANCE TAPLEY | June 03, 2009

Putting an end to the hunger strike

Prison Watch
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.
By LANCE TAPLEY and JEFF INGLIS | May 18, 2009

Arbitrary injustice

Sent to Supermax solitary confinement
Fears doesn't like the particular prison where he now resides. He would prefer to be in one near his family in Arizona, and not in solitary confinement.
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 09, 2009

Lawmakers to probe prison

Several investigations begin simultaneously
For years controversy has churned over the Maine State Prison's treatment of both inmates and correctional officers. For the first time, legislators have taken action.
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 08, 2009

Official propaganda

Why pay for the governor's publicity machine?
Isn't it sinister or at least creepy in a democracy for citizens to foot the bill for politicians and high officials to propagandize them?
By LANCE TAPLEY | March 18, 2009

Cleaning up Maine's sleaze

Politicians have left it to the people
When tourists admire Maine's picturesque waterfronts, they aren't close enough to smell the barrels reeking with rotting lobster bait.
By LANCE TAPLEY | March 18, 2009

Letters to the Portland editor: February 20, 2009

By | February 18, 2009

The wrong man for hard times

State House Democrats need to stand up to the governor
Most Democrats see Barack Obama’s inauguration as a clear-cut, welcome turn to the left.
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 04, 2009

Baldacci rejects reform, embraces corporate prisons again

Prison watch
Awareness is dawning around the country that 30 years of lengthy, tough-on-crime prison sentences have constructed an unsustainably expensive penal system.
By LANCE TAPLEY | January 21, 2009

Hey guv: stop slashing!

State budget cuts just make the recession worse
It seems as if there’s no light at the end of the state’s gloomy fiscal tunnel.
By LANCE TAPLEY | December 31, 2008

Prisoners’ support services slashed

Baldacci’s Warehouse
Governor John Baldacci announced on December 16 that he had taken significant steps toward warehousing prisoners instead of rehabilitating them.
By LANCE TAPLEY | December 23, 2008

Corrections changes

NAACP leader challenges Maine prison policies
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.
By LANCE TAPLEY | December 10, 2008

Letters to the Portland Editor, November 14, 2008

Time to respect all people
Employees of our prisons and jails deserve better wages and in-depth training.
By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | November 12, 2008

Falling down

Mistreatment of Maine prison guards lands heavily on inmates
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.
By LANCE TAPLEY | November 05, 2008

Three years and counting

The Portland Phoenix' s prison scoops keep piling up
For the past three years, Portland Phoenix contributing writer Lance Tapley has been the only reporter in Maine to pay attention to the appalling conditions suffered by inmates in the Maine State Prison
By PORTLAND PHOENIX STAFF | November 05, 2008

Baldacci raids the cookie jar

The governor’s secret Dirigo Health bailout
Under the American system of government, the legislative branch is supposed to decide how your tax money is spent, but . . .
By LANCE TAPLEY | October 15, 2008

The mentally ill, criminalized

Common nonsense
She is afraid he will continue to be kept in the Supermax, which will make him worse, she says.
By LANCE TAPLEY | September 11, 2008

A threat, but not to security

Deane Brown battles on
Maine prisoner Deane Brown, 44, is no longer in solitary confinement, though he remains far from Maine.
By LANCE TAPLEY | September 03, 2008

Maine: state of deception

How a budget surplus emerged from a back room
Surprise! When the 2008 fiscal year ended, on June 30, the state had a General Fund surplus of $56 million, so the shortfall in reality was considerably smaller than predicted — $134 million.
By LANCE TAPLEY | August 27, 2008

Letters to the Portland editor, August 22, 2008

Rogue Dead Guy Ale is not an IPA
We don’t expect every customer to love our establishment.
By LETTERS TO THE PORTLAND EDITOR | August 20, 2008

Letters to the Portland editor, July 25, 2008

Time to end torture
The Black Bird Legal Collective would like to thank Lance Tapley for his continued exposure of Maine prison issues.
By LETTERS TO THE PORTLAND EDITOR | July 23, 2008

Time for a clean sweep?

A former guard calls for prison reform
In early 2007, Rhonda Dawson, a thoughtful, candid, 45-year-old African-American guard at the Maine State Prison in Warren, quit her job after four years because, she says, of racist taunting from her fellow correctional officers.
By LANCE TAPLEY | July 23, 2008

Torture for the hostage-taker?

Prison watch
Will Michael Chasse, the inmate who allegedly held two people hostage on June 30 at the Maine State Prison, now be tortured by Governor John Baldacci’s administration?
By LANCE TAPLEY | July 09, 2008

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