This Just In

Deane Brown defense team enlarging

Prison reform

By LANCE TAPLEY | January 10, 2007

A lawyer for prison-abuse whistleblower Deane Brown has announced plans to train a research team to aid in a planned federal civil-rights suit to force the state to bring Brown back to Maine from a Maryland prison and collect monetary compensation for the harsh treatment he says he suffered in the Maine State Prison’s Supermax — officially, its Special Management Unit.

Brown claims he was sent to Maryland in November in retaliation for his outspoken criticism — in Phoenix articles and on a Rockland radio station — of Supermax conditions. Prison officials say they transferred him for “security” reasons. (See “Baldacci’s ‘political prisoner,’” by Lance Tapley, November 24, 2006.)

Attorney Lynne Williams, of Bar Harbor, says she expects her first training session to take place January 26 in either Portland or Augusta. Members of the Portland-based Victory Garden Project, a prison-reform group, plan to attend, she says. (People interested in participating may contact her at lwilliamslaw@earthlink.net or 207.288.8485.) She is working as a volunteer, assisted by the liberal National Lawyers Guild.

Topics: This Just In , Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Deane Brown, Lynne Williams

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