Prisons

Latest Articles

Privatized prison medical care is sick

But will cutting costs cure it? Joe Ponte's balancing act
For years complaints that the privatized medical care at the state's prisons was inadequate and abusive have poured into the mail and email boxes of prisoner advocates, the state's Corrections commissioner, and the press.
By LANCE TAPLEY | December 14, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Senator Collins helps derail prison reform

'Toxic' Washington
As a result of the apparent decision by congressional Republicans to oppose almost everything Democrats are for, Maine Senator Susan Collins — who claims to be above partisanship — helped derail Virginia Democratic Senator Jim Webb's bill to establish a bipartisan National Criminal Justice Commission. Maine's Olympia Snowe and three other Republicans joined unanimous Senate Democrats to support it.
By LANCE TAPLEY | November 09, 2011

Reducing solitary confinement

Exclusive Interview: How Maine’s corrections commissioner dropped supermax numbers by 70 percent . . . and became a national leader in prison reform (if anybody follows)
Installed by conservative Republican Governor Paul LePage last winter, Maine's new corrections commissioner, Joseph Ponte, 64, immediately set about reforming the prison system.
By LANCE TAPLEY | November 02, 2011

The secret's out

Toontime
Need free health care? Why not just go to prison?
By MATT BORS | July 13, 2011

Top prison officials fired

Shakeup continues
In a continuing shakeup at the troubled Maine State Prison, new Corrections commissioner Joseph Ponte has fired six top officials including its controversial security chief, Deputy Warden James O'Farrell.
By LANCE TAPLEY | June 15, 2011

Lock-up lessons

The new corrections commissioner wants Maine prisons to learn from the state’s juvenile-treatment model
Fixing Maine’s troubled prisons is not an impossible task. In fact, if the state treated adult inmates more along the lines of how it treats juvenile offenders, prison critics — including, surprisingly, the new corrections commissioner, Joseph Ponte — think the prisons might not only become more humane, they might actually “correct” the prisoners.
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 14, 2011

New Corrections commissioner nominated

Prison administration
Joseph Ponte, 64, a veteran warden for the nation's largest private-prison operator, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), has been nominated by Republican Governor Paul LePage to be the state's Corrections commissioner, replacing Martin Magnusson.
By LANCE TAPLEY | January 27, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Walking on broken glass

A (very) short list of Baldacci's successes
There must be some kind of law that kicks in whenever a prominent politician leaves office, requiring every columnist and pundit to blather on at length about the triumphs and tragedies of that esteemed figure's checkered career.
By AL DIAMON | December 15, 2010

LePage interested in corporate prisons

The $25,000 contribution question
In the gubernatorial campaign the controversial Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest for-profit prison operator, spent $25,000 on behalf of Republican candidate Paul LePage, now the governor-elect.
By LANCE TAPLEY | May 26, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

The reform-proof prison

Why Massachusetts' correctional system hasn't gotten any better
From the beginning of her tenure as commissioner, Department of Correction (DOC) commissioner Kathleen Dennehy clashed with union loyalists intent on maintaining the status quo.
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 08, 2010

Size matters

Big banks escape effective regulation; plus DOMA and "prison reform"
If the United States does not suffer a death wish, then it must be saddled with a streak of masochism as wide as the Mississippi River.
By EDITORIAL | July 14, 2010

The 13th Annual Muzzle Awards

A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England
A year and a half into the Age of Obama, we are learning a lesson we should have figured out long ago — that repression, once in place, is rarely rolled back all the way, and that liberals no less than conservatives are reluctant to give up power.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 05, 2010

Pressing Obama for an answer

Inside Job Dept.
Convicted murderer Darrell Jones has accomplished more in the worlds of media, entertainment, and activism from behind bars over the past 25 years than most free people do in a lifetime.
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 27, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

How can those in the box think outside of the box?

Letters to the Portland editor, May 14, 2010
I was disgusted on multiple levels with what the article revealed about the Maine State Prison.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | May 13, 2010

Radical night out in Portland

Activism Optimism
“People are upset about Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib,” Noam Chomsky told 750 people packed into the Woodfords Congregational Church last Saturday night, “but if you’re concerned about human rights, take a walk into a maximum-security prison.”
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 28, 2010

Are doctors complicit in prison torture?

The Maine medical community looks at solitary confinement
In the past few years an outcry has arisen over the involvement of military and CIA medical professionals and psychologists in torture. Some critics have even suggested criminal prosecution of the medical staff involved or, at least, revocation of their professional licenses.
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 21, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

A ‘moral victory’ against supermax torture

Analysis
At times the legislative debate on LD 1611, the bill to limit solitary confinement of the state’s prisoners, became surreal.
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 15, 2010

Murderabilia

A serial killer seeks a payoff
Incarcerated in a maximum-security prison in Cranston, Rhode Island, Jeff Mailhot grabbed a pen and a sheet of stationery and traced an outline of his beefy left hand.
By JOHN LARRABEE | April 05, 2010

Hello, we’re Johnny Cash

Stacked all-star tribute/benefit at the RISD Auditorium
The Nave Gallery in Somerville kicks off its month-long salute to the Man in Black next week.
By CHRIS CONTI | March 31, 2010

Boston film group protests arrest of Iranian director

Power of cinema?
At the Montreal Film Festival last summer, I had the pleasure of interviewing the Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who was serving as president of the international jury.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 24, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Maine tortures women, too

But Riverview presents an alternative
The Maine Department of Corrections is an equal-opportunity torturer.
By LANCE TAPLEY | March 10, 2010

Review: A Prophet

Jacques Audiard's Scarface for the new millennium
Visionaries thrive behind bars: Dostoevsky, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X. "The truth is ugly," explains one would-be sage, Charles Manson. "So we put our prophets in prison."
By PETER KEOUGH | March 02, 2010

Words from women in prison

Corrections Dept.
In her early years as a Providence police officer, Tabitha Glavin didn't think much about why women ended up in prison; her job was to put them there.
By ELIZABETH RAU | March 03, 2010

By | January 01, 0001