plans to propose it again

The Maine Legislature passed legislation to strengthen existing avenues for oversight of Maine jails, a compromise after an initial proposal for a corrections ombudsman faced pushback.  

Debate on this bill underscored the current lack of independent oversight of the Maine Department of Corrections, as there have been years-long vacancies on boards of visitors — panels assigned to each correctional facility tasked with inspecting and reviewing their management — and instances where lawmakers have been denied entry to facilities. 

LD 1962 would require the department to develop rules that ensure legislator access. It would also fill vacancies on the boards by giving more authority to the Legislature if the governor doesn’t act. After being passed and enacted by both the Maine Senate and House of Representatives, the bill is now headed to Gov. Janet Mills, who for years has left many of those positions empty. 

This governor’s office declined to share her stance on the legislation, though the Department of Corrections is opposed. 

The original proposal for an Office of the Corrections Ombudsman is not going away. 

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Jill Duson (D-Cumberland), the bill sponsor, told Maine Morning Star she plans to propose it again next year if elected, calling the version that passed a “Band-Aid.” 

Proposal for corrections watchdog reveals lack of oversight of Maine prisons

Last month’s floor debate on the bill largely centered on legislative oversight of the department. 

Sen. Scott Cyrway (R-Kennebec) called the bill “another example of legislative overreach.” He said it would change the Legislature’s current relationship with the Department of Corrections to an adversarial one. 

Sen. Chip Curry (D-Waldo) pushed back. “It’s not meant to be adversarial, but it is not meant to be cozy, either,” he said. 

“So often we talk about maintaining the duties and and the power of the Legislature,” Curry said. “This is one of those places where we need to express our power as the Senate and the House in order to ensure that we are doing the oversight for the moral and the financial duties of the state.”

The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee had recommended the bill to explicitly require the department to make sure legislators can fully access their facilities and the people incarcerated within them, with exceptions for emergency situations, such as riots and hostage situations. 

Cyrway argued that wouldn’t account for other reasons that could warrant limits to access, such as insufficient staff, echoing concerns raised by the department, which opposed both the current and earlier version of LD 1962. 

Ultimately, the Senate and House of Representatives opted to go with what a minority of the committee recommended: directing the department to draft its own rules for legislative access, which would still require legislative review and approval before adoption.

Currently, legislator access is the same as anyone else. Democratic Rep. Nina Milliken of Blue Hill, a co-sponsor of the bill, said she was denied entry to Maine State Prison multiple times after being approved for a scheduled visit.

Boards of visitors are also tasked with visiting prison facilities and interacting with incarcerated people, however Milliken said she knows of few that do so. 

Three of the five boards are underfilled. The DOC puts forth recommendations and the governor makes appointments. “The process of filling those vacancies is continuing,” Mills’ spokesperson Bed Goodman said this winter. 

Under the bill, if a vacancy arises, the governor would have to notify the criminal justice committee within five days, and then the governor would have 90 days to fill that seat. If she doesn’t, the presiding officers — the president of the Maine Senate and speaker of the House — are tasked with filling the vacancy. 

Many of those vacant positions are for representatives of specific affinity groups, such as mental health professionals and formerly incarcerated people, which a 2023 update to Maine statute required. As a result of that change, almost every member of the board for the state’s largest prison, Maine State Prison, resigned in protest and six of the seven seats remain vacant. 

“I chose not to resign just so that future legislative interest would have someone to talk with! So, here we are. Finally!” Perry Gates, the sole remaining member, wrote in a letter to the State and Local Government Committee in March. 

Gates’ letter was in opposition to a different bill, LD 2228, which sought to repeal inactive boards and commissions, though that committee removed boards of visitors from the measure’s purview to wait and see what happened with LD 1962. 

In his letter, Perry instead recommended lawmakers change several aspects of boards of visitors, including the requirement that members have certain lived experience. But, Perry recommended the Legislature push off any such changes until the next governor, given that the executive is the one to make appointments. 

He also recommended ensuring seats aren’t left vacant for more than three months, which LD 1962 would effectively do.