This Just In

Prison guards suit up

Battle ready

By LANCE TAPLEY | March 14, 2007

CLOTHES OF WAR: An example Class A uniform at left, and an example battle dress uniform (BDU) at right.

Maine State Prison warden Jeffrey Merrill has decided to replace the prison’s traditional uniform for correctional officers. The prison guards will go from what is known as a Class A uniform, a police-style outfit, to the military style known as the battle dress uniform (BDU). In a February 28 memo to prison staff, he said he made the decision to save $45,000 in the budget, money that will be used to buy new automatic pistols to replace the officers’ revolvers. “Some staff are concerned about maintaining a professional appearance,” he writes. They are concerned about the image the BDU presents to prisoners — that the guards are going to battle. But Merrill urged officers to give the new look “a fair trial” for a year, and then he will re-evaluate.

Prisoners’ guru to speak in Maine
Mainers will get a chance to discuss prison life with Bo Lozoff.
Promoting human rights at home
“We have a holier-than-thou” attitude in the United States about human-rights violations abroad, said Bart Carhart, a student organizer of the new Amnesty International chapter at the University of Southern Maine.
Arbitrary injustice
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.
Sluggish response to suicide
An eyewitness to the suicide of Ryan Rideout, a 25-year-old, severely mentally ill Augusta man who hanged himself with his bedding in his Maine State Prison Supermax cell on October 5, calls into question the official version of events.
State sued over inmate’s death
As severely mentally ill Maine State Prison inmate Ryan Rideout prepared to hang himself from a sprinkler in his cell on the night of October 5, 2006, other inmates frantically pressed panic buttons in their cells.
Baldacci’s ‘political prisoner’
John Baldacci’s administration on November 13 sent the Maine State Prison’s chief human-rights advocate, inmate Deane Brown, to a dangerous prison more than 500 miles away, in Baltimore. Brown’s lawyer and his best friend believe this decision was in retaliation for his activism, and puts his life in danger.
Hunger strike at Maine's Supermax Prison
Inmates at the Maine State Prison’s solitary-confinement Supermax unit in Warren have been on a hunger strike since Saturday night. Death in the Supermax. By Lance Tapley
Prisoners’ support services slashed
Governor John Baldacci announced on December 16 that he had taken significant steps toward warehousing prisoners instead of rehabilitating them.
Anti-solitary campaign expands
As the February 17 State House public hearing approaches on the bill to restrict solitary confinement at the Maine State Prison, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT), which sparked national debate about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, has announced its support.
The cost of torture
In the end, whether mass solitary confinement continues at the Maine State Prison supermax may come down to an issue of money rather than right or wrong. And resolving that issue may come down to whether the state wants to pay more now to pay less in the long term.
Torture for the hostage-taker?
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?
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Topics: This Just In , Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Prisons, Jeffrey Merrill

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