Legislative Action in the 132nd
Peter Lehman, Policy Lead for the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, announced today MPAC’s legislative priorities for the new 132nd Maine legislature. Jan 10 was the deadline for submitting bills. A few bills have already been reported out and given LD (Legislative Document) numbers and some committees are beginning to hear bills this coming week.
MPAC has submitted the following five bills:
Supervised Community Confinement (SCCP): This creates a new category of residents eligible for SCCP for those whose crimes was before they were 26 years old, have a sentence of 15 years or more, and have already served at least 15 years. This was submitted by Rep. Millikin.
Reentry: This calls for special intensive out of cell programing during the final six month of incarceration in support of successful reentry transition. This was submitted by Rep. Sayre.
Parole: This bill reinstates parole in Maine and applies to everyone currently incarcerated. People serving a sentence between 5 and 60 years are eligible after ⅓ of their sentence—people serving a sentence less than five years would not be eligible for parole. See the website, Parole 4 Maine and Parole 4 Maine Info Sheet, for more information. This was submitted by Rep. Dusan.
Ombuds: This bill creates an independent Office of the Ombuds, based on the models in New Jersey and Washington state, to oversee the Department of Corrections and provide a resource for residents, staff and their families. This will open opportunities for people impacted by incarceration to raise issues and resolve conflicts, recommend positive changes, and report individual and systemic concerns. This was submitted by Sen. Dusan.
Felony Murder: This bill will abolish the crime of felony murder which has been used to target racial and ethnic marginalized groups in Maine in charging, convicting and sentencing. This was submitted by Sen. Beebe-Center.
It will take a while for these five bills to be released and given a number. That will probably take several weeks. MPAC will notify its members when these bills have numbers and have been referred to Committees.
In addition to these five bills there will be many other bills submitted that we will need to watch and possibly support or oppose.
There will probably be several thousand bills released to be considered. Out of the 175 bills released thus far, we have already identified six bills of interest, including one from the DOC to impose a technology fee on residents and another to increase health care fees for residents.
This list will grow. We have a spreadsheet online to keep you up to date.
What can you do?
Get in touch with your own legislators and talk about your interest and concern about justice reform. Try to develop a relationship. Get to know them and lay the groundwork for the day when you will talk with them about specifics.
Don’t wait until you have specifics, begin the process now so they know who you are when you call them about the specific bill, a specific hearing or a specific vote.
To find your legislators, go the House listing by town for your Representative and the Senate listing by town for your Senator.
Both the Democratic and the Republican Parties have monthly county meetings. Find out where and when yours is held, attend and become part of the process. Then as specific issues and bills arise you can be a local voice for reform and influence all your county representatives.
Peter Lehman, PhD, CIPSS
Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition
Maine Reentry Network
www.GrowInME.com
(207) 542-1496
