the Maine Civil Liberties Union

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Commemorate 9/11 in your own way

Observances
Regardless of what you believe about 9/11, it is a day that deserves contemplation and commemoration. Here are some local events before, after, and on the 10th anniversary that will get your blood, brain, or heartstrings moving.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | September 07, 2011

Mentally ill inmates need more help

Prison reform
Prisoner advocates would like the new Corrections commissioner to strengthen his reform of the Maine State Prison by giving more care to the many mentally ill prisoners he is releasing from often-lengthy solitary confinement into the prison's general population.
By LANCE TAPLEY | June 22, 2011

Reform comes to the supermax

New commissioner cuts population by more than half; prisoner-rights advocates help in the reform
Less than three months into his job, Maine's new corrections commissioner Joseph Ponte has begun to dramatically reform the Maine State Prison's long-troubled solitary-confinement "supermax" unit.
By LANCE TAPLEY | May 25, 2011

NAACP, others bristle after GOP Senator censors anti-private-prison testimony

Words ‘slavery,’ ‘racism’ banned
What is it with some Republicans and racial issues, anyway?
By LANCE TAPLEY | May 04, 2011

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

Will the lame ducks lift Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

Down to the wire
The clock is ticking for Congress to act on two important anti-discrimination measures, both contained in the huge defense bill that senators hope to debate before the holiday recess.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 08, 2010

Penal future

Will LePage's zeal to cut the budget make prisoners and guards bleed?
The few things that Republican Governor-elect Paul LePage was reported as saying on crime-and-punishment issues during the campaign mostly sounded harsh and, of course, right-wing.
By LANCE TAPLEY | November 10, 2010

Ramping up safe-drinking strategies

Summer Nights
It'll come as no surprise to anyone who was out and about during the long, hot, holiday weekend that Portland's drinking and nightlife scenes get a little bit more . . . intense during the summer months.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | July 07, 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

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

Marriage activists get closure, look forward

Moving on
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree expressed what many in the room were feeling at Equality Maine’s annual dinner celebration on Saturday night: the function room at the Holiday Inn by the Bay on Spring Street elicits “a little bit of PTSD” for Maine’s gay-rights supporters.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 31, 2010

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

The cost of torture

Solitary Confinement Bill Hearing
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.
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 25, 2010

Seeking humane treatment

State and national efforts well under way
Some Maine people are taking moral responsibility for the way supermax inmates are treated.
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 17, 2010

Screams from solitary

‘By dehumanizing prisoners, we dehumanize ourselves.’
The 132-man supermax unit within the 925-man Maine State Prison is an expensive, taxpayer-funded torture chamber that for 18 years has sucked in mostly nonviolent, mostly mentally ill prisoners and ground them up by means of mind-destroying solitary confinement, officially sanctioned beatings, “restraint” devices resembling those in medieval dungeons, sexual humiliation, and psychiatric, medical, and legal neglect.
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 17, 2010

Anti-solitary campaign expands

Stopping Supermax Torture
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.
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 03, 2010

A mysterious new inmate death

Prison Scandal Watch
Despite a scandal earlier this year over a prisoner death, state corrections officials won’t allow the Phoenix to interview a Maine State Prison inmate who has claimed in letters that prison staff abused an ailing prisoner, Victor Valdez, before Valdez died in late November.
By LANCE TAPLEY | December 10, 2009

After the Question 1 vote

Regrouping
Last Tuesday, Maine became the 31st state to put same-sex marriage to a public vote — and to have it lose.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | November 11, 2009

It's time to party!

Get your friends together and marshal support for marriage
Doug Kimmel and Ron Schwiser were married 40 years ago by a Presbyterian minister. They've lived in Hancock — where they pay taxes, attend church, and volunteer in the community — for more than 20 years. Yet, they are virtual strangers in the eyes of the law. They are denied the more than 400 legal rights and benefits that come with marriage under Maine law.
By SHENNA BELLOWS | August 04, 2009

Just the beginning

The battle for marriage equality really starts now
More than a few people asked us why we are publishing this special section now — now that gay-marriage opponents have filed their People's Veto signatures, now that same-sex marriages will not be taking place at least until after Mainers vote on the issue on November 3.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | August 04, 2009

Just the beginning

Federal investigation requested

More prison turmoil
Stirred into action by the murder of a wheelchair-bound prisoner, human-rights activists have asked the federal Department of Justice to investigate the treatment of Maine State Prison inmates.
By LANCE TAPLEY | July 22, 2009

After the battle

Where will same-sex marriage be in 2010?
In a fast-moving and historic couple of days in Augusta (pity they don't move so fast on other important issues), the Maine Legislature last week approved same-sex marriage, and Governor John Baldacci ended weeks of speculation about what he would do by signing it that very day.
By JEFF INGLIS | May 13, 2009

Legislative battle takes shape

Gay marriage
The list of Maine's gay-marriage bill co-sponsors — i.e. , those legislators lending the most robust support to the measure — was released last Thursday afternoon.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 18, 2009

Thoughts on the 36th anniversary of Roe V. Wade

Woman rights
To commemorate that anniversary, the Maine Choice Coalition, along with the Maine Civil Liberties Union, the League of Young Voters, and the Portland Phoenix, are teaming up to screen the film I Had An Abortion at SPACE Gallery on Wednesday, January 28.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 21, 2009

Legislature will take up gay marriage this session

Equal rights
Maine lawmakers are certain to debate gay marriage in 2009, with competing marriage-related bills slated to be filed with the Legislature this week.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 14, 2009

Domestic spying

Maine's walls have ears
In January, the Maine Civil Liberties Union announced that the FBI has secretly monitored the Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice, an alliance of around 60 local peace and environmental groups.
By SARA DONNELLY | February 08, 2006