At the New England Newspaper and Press Association awards banquet earlier this month, Portland Phoenix writers earned several awards in the weekly newspaper category. Contributing writer Lance Tapley took second place in investigative reporting for his ongoing series about conditions at the Maine State Prison. Staff writer Deirdre Fulton took second place for health reporting for "What it Means to be Transgender," a story addressing both the politics and the humanity of transgender people. And our Style magazine, edited by Deirdre Fulton and designed by Janice Checchio, won second place as a niche publication. Our staff, including full-timers and freelancers, won third place in arts and entertainment reporting for "Growing Maine Culture," a look back at 10 years of the Maine arts scene. And contributing writer Shay Stewart-Bouley took third place in coverage of a racial or ethnic issue for an installment of her "Diverse-City" column that focused on the fact that people tend to view others through lenses of assumption, rather than for who we each are.
Related:
Prison torture coverage, expanded, A mysterious new inmate death, Seeking humane treatment, More 
- Prison torture coverage, expanded
Longtime Portland Phoenix contributing writer Lance Tapley's investigation of the Maine State Prison and the state's corrections system as a whole have reached a yet wider audience with the publication of an essay by Tapley in The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse.
- A mysterious new inmate death
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.
- Seeking humane treatment
Some Maine people are taking moral responsibility for the way supermax inmates are treated.
- Time for law to end torture
In a collaborative effort between human-rights activists and incarcerated Mainers, a bill to end the use and abuse of solitary confinement has been drafted and will be submitted to legislators soon.
- A ‘moral victory’ against supermax torture
At times the legislative debate on LD 1611, the bill to limit solitary confinement of the state’s prisoners, became surreal.
- How can those in the box think outside of the box?
I was disgusted on multiple levels with what the article revealed about the Maine State Prison.
- A prison obituary: the tragedy of Victor Valdez
Joking among themselves, a small group of guards entered Close E pod. "Lock up!" one of them suddenly commanded the prisoners: go to your cells.
- Prison activist: Board chairman wrong
I just finished reading the letter from Jon Wilson. Mr. Tapley was correct, the Board of Visitors is not living up to its mandate to represent the public's concerns about the Maine State Prison, nor is it minimally accountable in that it never filed an annual report until provoked by the scrutiny of Mr. Tapley's investigative journalism.
- Screams from solitary
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.
- 'No-touch torture' in New Jersey
Deane Brown, a Maine inmate shipped out of state because of his criticism of the Maine State Prison, is now being held in New Jersey in "one of the most repressive" prison units in the country, often reserved for "political" or activist prisoners like black radicals, says Bonnie Kerness of the American Friends Service Committee's national Prison Watch.
- Not-so-progressive nightmares and the Buy Local survey
Deirdre Fulton's characterization of the nightmare unfolding in Augusta is accurate (" Progressive Nightmare ," March 18); her characterization of that as a "progressive" nightmare is not.
- Less
Topics:
This Just In
, Maine State Prison, Portland Phoenix, NENPA
