Stan Moody

POB 240
Manchester, ME 04351
207/626-0594
www.stanmoody.com

Maine Prison System Under Fire Again

Stan Moody of Manchester, ME, former Maine State Representative and most recently a
Chaplain at Maine State Prison in Warren, is advocating for transparency and accountability in
Maine’s prison system…A prolific and published writer, Dr. Moody is pastor of the Meeting
House Church in Manchester and has been a speaker on human rights issues at conferences
around the nation…

The June 16th issue of the Portland Press Herald and the Central Maine Newspapers
carried an article on the Department of Corrections. The Department was responding to a report
on the prison issued in June, 2009, by OPEGA, the Office of Program Evaluation and
Government Accountability. The OPEGA report cited a systemic culture of “intimidation,
harassment, discrimination and a strong sense of a ‘good old boy’ network” within the prison
administration.
Improvements in staff morale and programming were alleged by Warden Barnhart, who
has initiated town hall-style meetings with staff and frequent walk-throughs inside. Citing a new
culture of “accountability,” the warden and the Commissioner of Corrections pointed out a lack
of qualified correctional officers and continued hamstringing by budget cutbacks and poor
working conditions, contributing to “wearing out the staff.”
There were a number of glaring holes in the report. First, there have been 3 suspicious
deaths in the Maine prison system within the past year centered in or around solitary
confinement. There was no discussion as to what was contributing to this rash of suspicious
deaths or what is being done to bring to closure the investigation and prosecution of the parties
involved.
Second, the Maine prison system has a long history of investigating itself when
something goes awry. Self-directed investigations are, to most casual observers, not worth the
paper on which they are written. In the alleged new spirit of accountability, no effort has been
made by the Department of Corrections to initiate impartial investigations. In fact, the very
OPEGA report in question was defensively dismissed and deflected back to the Department by
the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety. LD1611, the bill to limit
the use and abuse of solitary confinement, was turned into a resolve for the Department to, once
again, investigate itself.
Third, there was much in the article about how the calmness of the prison depends on the
attitudes of prisoners. “Prisoners can be my biggest asset if they want to be,” according to
Warden Barnhart. “This is where they live. If they are calmer, it makes the staff calmer.” This
is the classic chicken and egg scenario. In order to make progress within the prison, we have to
keep the prisoners calm. We can do that in a number of ways, of course – by drugging them, by
keeping them busy, by imposing the heavy boot of tyranny or by treating them as human beings
entitled to respect due all human beings. There is the sense throughout the article that the focus
is on staff morale rather than on the people in their care.
Fourth, in this new climate of accountability, the old warden, Jeff Merrill, either did his
job or did not. If not, the message that you send to those staff members who are trying to do
their best is that if you screw up, you will get a cushier job. I have come to believe that Warden
Merrill was fighting a system that was stacked against him.
Fifth, the Lincoln County Superior Court, on May 17, 2010, unsealed a sworn deposition
in the case of a former guard against the State of Maine. That deposition strongly suggests that
there is a practice within Maine State Prison that operates separately from Department of
Corrections policies and procedures. With the OPEGA report and the deposition, there is
sufficient information now on the record to raise a reasonable suspicion of a network of staff that
sanctions inconsistent discipline, ignores Department policies and protects its own with a shield
of silence. If that is so, why have staff dismissals at the prison been limited to those at or near
the bottom of the food chain?
We wish the new warden well. Accountability does not, however, begin at the bottom. It
begins at the top. Re-entry programs and programmed home confinement of non-violent
prisoners, the most viable paths to prison reform, are nearly non-existent within the prison
system. Keeping prisoners mollified and calm in order that staff may enjoy a happier work
experience will never make a dent in the $300M a year corrections growth industry in Maine.