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Rep. Nina Milliken, D-Blue Hill, is serving in her second term in the Maine House of Representatives. She sits on the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
If prisons made us safer, the United States would be the safest country in the world. Instead, we have the largest incarcerated population on the planet — and we are not safer for it.
Maine abolished parole in 1976, becoming the first state to do so. Sixteen others followed. As a result, average prison sentences here increased by roughly 20%, making Maine one of the harshest sentencing states in the nation. Today, our prison population is more than three times larger than it was in 1976, and it is aging rapidly.
Many people incarcerated in Maine now require extensive medical care due to age and chronic illness. The Maine State Prison operates a hospice program for dying residents. At Mountain View Correctional Facility, an entire housing unit functions essentially as a nursing home. These realities come at enormous cost to taxpayers and do little — if anything — to improve public safety.
When I recently visited the nursing unit at Mountain View, I saw frail, elderly men who posed no realistic threat to the public. Many have been incarcerated for decades. Many were likely rehabilitated long ago. Yet because Maine has no parole system, they will almost certainly die in prison.
During my three years serving in the Maine House of Representatives, I have visited every state prison and several county jails. I have spent significant time learning how these systems operate and where they fall short. Maine houses a number of people who committed crimes in other states and were transferred here to serve their sentences.
I have written letters in support of parole applications for individuals incarcerated in Maine who are eligible for parole, simply because their crimes occurred elsewhere. In other words, people can be paroled into Maine, but not from Maine. We already accept the theoretical risk of parole; we just deny that opportunity to our own residents.
What about victims? I am a survivor of violent crime myself — multiple times over — and I have spent much of my adult life working in victim advocacy. Victims’ experiences are complex and deeply personal. There is no single way victims feel, or what justice looks like to them. Many survivors of violent crime support restoring parole, and many will testify to that effect when a bill to reinstate parole is considered this legislative session. The bill is also supported by the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault. It reflects a belief that accountability and compassion can coexist.
No one supporting this effort wants to compromise public safety. We want people who are released to succeed and never return to prison. Today, it costs roughly $120,000 per year to incarcerate one person in Maine — far more for elderly or medically fragile individuals. What return are we getting on that investment? What public safety purpose is served by incarcerating an 80-year-old man or a gravely ill 68-year-old?
During a hearing last year, I asked a representative from the attorney general’s office how sentencing is determined after conviction. I specifically asked whether factors such as illiteracy or not having completed high school could increase a sentence. I was told they could. I then asked whether there is any mechanism for a sentence to be reconsidered if a person learns to read, earns a diploma, or completes higher education while incarcerated. The answer was no.
In Maine, there is no pathway for a sentence to be revisited based on rehabilitation or transformation — even when everyone agrees the person no longer poses a threat. And Maine taxpayers bear the cost.
Parole would not be automatic. It would be a careful, rigorous process that offers people who have demonstrated rehabilitation a chance to spend their remaining years with dignity and the support of their families.
It has been 49 years since Maine abolished parole. I believe it is long past time to bring it back.