The latest legislative session in Maine saw few changes to the state’s criminal justice system.
Lawmakers pursued three overarching types of reform: adding oversight of prisons, reestablishing parole and expanding criminal record sealing. The first two proposals were significantly walked back, while the latter was outright rejected through the failure of multiple bills.
But, the lawmakers and advocates behind these proposals said they plan to bring them back, either again in future legislatures or potentially as citizen initiatives sent to voters.
Parole
Maine was the first state to abolish parole roughly 50 years ago. It’s now one of 16 states that remain without the conditional early release system, with another failed attempt to bring it back this year.
Parole is not automatic but a condition granted by a board for someone to serve the remainder of their sentence supervised in the community, while adhering to specific rules.
“I would consider trying to send it to the ballot next year,” bill sponsor Rep. Nina Milliken (D-Blue Hill) told Maine Morning Star after the negative committee vote in March. Though, the bill wasn’t expected to pass from the get-go because previous attempts saw unified opposition from Gov. Janet Mills, a former prosecutor, and Attorney General Aaron Frey.
The committee changed the bill, LD 1941, into a study, which the full Legislature and Mills ultimately agreed to pursue. Most of the pushback against the proposal was over implementation concerns, rather than the policy itself. As a result, the study will specifically evaluate how a new parole system would interact with existing resentencing procedures.
The Maine Department of Corrections argued the current system is sufficient, pointing to recent changes to what’s called the supervised community confinement program. Expanded in 2021 without Mills’ signature, that program permits people to spend up to the last 30 months of their sentence in the community, supervised by the department through probation. It had previously been available to people who had 18 or fewer months remaining.
Some lawmakers, headed by Milliken, also attempted to further expand that program. After tabling a bill last year, lawmakers failed to enact it in the House this year and it was ultimately put on the “appropriations table,” where bills go to vie for remaining funding, and it died there without final action when lawmakers adjourned.
Milliken has vowed to bring both proposals back “every session ‘til we pass it, or ‘til I get the boot.”
Oversight
An initial proposal to establish a corrections ombudsman ultimately turned into one to instead strengthen existing avenues for oversight of Maine jails.
Debate on this bill, LD 1962, underscored the current lack of independent oversight of the Maine Department of Corrections, as there have been years-long vacancies on boards of visitors — panels assigned to each correctional facility tasked with inspecting and reviewing their management — and instances where lawmakers have been denied entry to facilities.
The new law will fill vacancies on the boards by giving more authority to the Legislature if the governor doesn’t act and require the department to develop rules that ensure legislator access.
The department had been opposed to both iterations, however Mills ultimately allowed the amended legislation to become law on April 19, though without her signature. The law won’t take effect until the summer, because 90 days have to pass after the Legislature’s adjournment.
Advocates for incarcerated people’s rights said the need for greater oversight is two-fold: to address current issues being raised within prisons as well as the systems that are not allowing those issues to be publicly resolved. For example, the Maine Department of Corrections governs its own grievance process for inmates. If an incarcerated person doesn’t agree with the department’s ruling, they can challenge the decision in court.
“If a grievance is dismissed, it’s the end of the matter unless you have the funds at the time and the know-how and the support in order to move forward,” explained Leo Hylton, who is incarcerated in Maine State Prison. “The vast majority are lacking in one of those areas, or in most cases, all of those areas.”
Assistant Senate Majority Leader Jill Duson (D-Cumberland), the bill sponsor, said an ombudsman would offer a way to zoom out, consider complaints holistically and independently.
Take, for example, complaints about access to medications, she said. An ombudsman would review how medications are ordered, how frequently incarcerated people can access physicians and other trends that may reveal areas where the system could be tweaked to improve outcomes for everyone.
“It’s trying to find a system solution versus doing 100 Band-Aids,” Duson said.
She vowed to introduce the ombudsman proposal again next year if reelected. “I remain very much committed to encouraging the Legislature to create an Office of Corrections Ombudsman,” Duson said.
Criminal records
Mills vetoed legislation that would have adopted an automatic record sealing system for certain low-level crimes, expanding the current petition-based process. Lawmakers sustained that veto on Wednesday, but it’s likely to return.
“There is a commitment to working in a future Legislature on bringing this proposal back,” said Tess Parks, policy director for the Maine Recovery Access Project (ME-RAP). “A lot of the groundwork, momentum and excitement for this has been growing.”
Separately, four narrower bills related to record sealing this session also failed.
They included measures to expand the types of convictions eligible for sealing under the current process and to expand petition-based record sealing for convictions for conduct that’s no longer a crime. Others sought to automatically seal marijuana-related misdemeanors and clarify with whom sealed records can be shared.