Prisons

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Privatized prison medical care is sick

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.
But will cutting costs cure it? Joe Ponte's balancing act
By LANCE TAPLEY | December 16, 2011

Maine's GOP AG and gov again imprison a social problem rather than solving it

Last month, I wrote about the demonization and criminalization of the needy, noting that rather than actually fix social problems, conservative politicians make them worse...
By Jeff Inglis | December 12, 2011

Senator Collins helps derail prison reform

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
'Toxic' Washington
By LANCE TAPLEY | November 11, 2011

Reducing solitary confinement

Installed by conservative Republican Governor Paul LePage last winter, Maine's new corrections commissioner, Joseph Ponte, 64, immediately set about reforming the prison system.
Exclusive Interview: How Maine’s corrections commissioner dropped supermax numbers by 70 percent . . . and became a national leader in prison reform (if anybody follows)
By LANCE TAPLEY | October 29, 2011

The secret's out

Need free health care? Why not just go to prison?
Toontime
By MATT BORS | July 15, 2011

Top prison officials fired

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.
Shakeup continues
By LANCE TAPLEY | June 17, 2011

Lock-up lessons

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 — t
The new corrections commissioner wants Maine prisons to learn from the state’s juvenile-treatment model
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 08, 2011

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 Magnusso
Prison administration
By LANCE TAPLEY | January 28, 2011

Supermax coverage continues

Portland Phoenix contributing writer Lance Tapley has an article in the latest issue of the Boston Review. It's called "The Worst of the Worst: Supermax...
By Jeff Inglis | December 17, 2010

Walking on broken glass

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.
A (very) short list of Baldacci's successes
By AL DIAMON | December 17, 2010

LePage interested in corporate prisons

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.
The $25,000 contribution question
By LANCE TAPLEY | December 17, 2010

Prisoner-rights advocates honored by MCLU

Three Mainers, all activists for prisoner-rights, will be honored by the Maine Civil Liberties Union on Friday, with the MCLU's Roger Baldwin Award, named for...
By Jeff Inglis | October 13, 2010

The reform-proof prison

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.
Why Massachusetts' correctional system hasn't gotten any better
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 10, 2010

Size matters

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.
Big banks escape effective regulation; plus DOMA and "prison reform"
By EDITORIAL | July 16, 2010

The 13th Annual Muzzle Awards

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.
A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England
By DAN KENNEDY | July 02, 2010

Pressing Obama for an answer

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.
Inside Job Dept.
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 28, 2010

The battle against supermaxes expands

Lance Tapley, very familiar to Portland Phoenix readers, has a new national-scope piece on the national anti-supermax movement published at The Crime Report. Give it...
By Jeff Inglis | May 18, 2010

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.
Letters to the Portland editor, May 14, 2010
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | May 14, 2010

Radical night out in Portland

“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.”
Activism Optimism
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 30, 2010

Are doctors complicit in prison torture?

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
The Maine medical community looks at solitary confinement
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 23, 2010

Tonight: Explore solitary confinement with National Geographic

As Portland Phoenix readers well know, we've been covering living conditions in the Maine State Prison's solitary-confinement supermax unit for more than four years now.But...
By Jeff Inglis | April 20, 2010

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.
Analysis
By LANCE TAPLEY | April 16, 2010

Murderabilia

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.
A serial killer seeks a payoff
By JOHN LARRABEE | April 02, 2010

Hello, we’re Johnny Cash

The Nave Gallery in Somerville kicks off its month-long salute to the Man in Black next week.
Stacked all-star tribute/benefit at the RISD Auditorium
By CHRIS CONTI | April 02, 2010

Boston film group protests arrest of Iranian director

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.
Power of cinema?
By PETER KEOUGH | March 26, 2010

Documentary take on LD 1611 testimony

Time of Day Productions (we're not actually sure who they are, but here's their YouTube profile) have posted a short film that has their viewpoint...
By Jeff Inglis | March 22, 2010

Maine tortures women, too

The Maine Department of Corrections is an equal-opportunity torturer.
But Riverview presents an alternative
By LANCE TAPLEY | March 12, 2010

Review: A Prophet

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."
Jacques Audiard's Scarface for the new millennium
By PETER KEOUGH | March 05, 2010

Words from women in prison

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.
Corrections Dept.
By ELIZABETH RAU | March 05, 2010

Prison staff comments, at last: 'Lance Tapley is ignorant'

An anonymous, lightly disguised employee of the Maine Department of Corrections has posted a pair of videos in which he presents a series of statements...
By Jeff Inglis | March 04, 2010

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