To : Governor John Baldacci
Commissioner Martin Magnusson
Associate Commissioner Denise Lord
Commissioner Anne Jordan
Senator William Diamond
Representative Stan Gerzofsky
Senator Beth Edmonds
Speaker of the House, Glen Cummings
Sheriff James Madore

From: The Board of Directors of the Maine Council of Churches

Date: April 20, 2007

The Board of Directors of the Maine Council of Churches wishes to express it's appreciation for the efforts of the Governor, Department of Corrections, the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, and the Sheriff's Association as you wrestle with the difficult issues related to prison and jail overcrowding in our state. The problem is critical.

At the same time, we urge you not to send any inmates to the Corrections Corporation of America's facility in Oklahoma or any other state. We are opposed for two reasons. First, sending prisoners out-of-state removes them from family and community support and accountability. Second, we are opposed to the use of the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The CCA has been continuously faulted for egregious actions, including failure to address violence within its prisons, failure to provide adequate medical care, unfair labor practices, and substandard conditions. Further, newspapers reported that DOC officials who visited the facility found it lacking in programs available in Maine. There is ample evidence pointing to the importance of programming in reducing recidivism, which is a stated goal of the DOC.

We believe that there are some alternative remedies worth considering that might provide immediate relief from overcrowding including:

•  Use some of the proposed $3million that it would cost to fund out-of-state incarceration to increase the number of probation officers and thus the number of county jail inmates who are assigned to probation. Hiring as few as three additional probation officers and assigning a normal load of new probationers from county jails to each would free up more than enough beds to house those prisoners slated to be sent out of state.

•  Restore parole (which provides both an incentive to change behavior and empties beds through the early release of those who give serious evidence of turning their lives around)

•  Increase funding to expand the Re-Entry program whose early data show successful results.

•  Increase funding for community related programs such as Restorative Justice, VOA, and Maine Pre-Trial whose data show reduced incarceration rates.

The first of these suggestions could provide immediate relief while the others could become effective within a relatively short time. Longer-term solutions will demand considerable collaboration between the D.O.C., the judiciary, prosecution, the sheriff's law enforcement and community-based programs. The enormity of the problem we face as a state calls for creative approaches. We pledge our support to those efforts.