Analysis Area 1: (A) Assess behavioral health (BH) challenges, especially opioid addiction, and their impacts on people in the criminal justice system, including assessing the availability, funding, and oversight of treatment resources; (B) Analyze jail and prison-based programming and treatment, including that related to diversion and reentry.
Background: Behavioral health challenges, especially related to the use of opioids, are particularly pressing in Maine. Between 2012 and 2017, Maine’s drug overdose deaths increased 156 percent, driven by a 278-percent increase in the rate of opioid-related overdose deaths. In 2017, Maine’s drug overdose death rate was the ninth highest in the nation, with many deaths linked to the opioid crisis in the state. Data released in April 2019 indicates that overdose deaths declined slightly in 2018, but the overall rate remains high, and state leaders are determined to address this critical challenge.
Update: In December, CSG Justice Center staff spoke with leadership from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) about current and future initiatives (including interagency initiatives) that impact people in the criminal justice system and ways in which Justice Reinvestment in Maine may complement those initiatives. In early December, CSG Justice Center staff spoke with DHHS Deputy Commissioner, Director of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services and Chief Forensic Psychologist about the agency’s efforts to expand behavioral health treatment in correctional facilities; improve access to treatment and programming in the community; and impact related services, such as housing, education, transportation, etc., for people with behavioral health conditions in Maine. In mid-December, CSG Justice Center staff spoke with DHHS staff leading the ongoing process of expanding MaineCare, Maine’s Medicaid program, to many low-income Mainers. Discussion included the successes and challenges of expanding the state’s program, coverage of various services, linkages to care and treatment, necessary improvements to the program, and more. These discussions helped CSG Justice Center staff better understand active efforts to improve the behavioral health system in Maine and areas in which the Justice Reinvestment project can improve the effectiveness of these efforts. Initial policy proposals related to behavioral health were developed in mid-December and are being discussed and honed internally before being presented to state leaders in January 2020.
Analysis Area 2: (A) Determine primary drivers of prison population growth in Maine, including revocation policy and practice, recidivism monitoring, and time-earning status; (B) evaluate probation policy and practice in Maine so that probation can be maximized as a tool for recidivism reduction and recovery outcomes can be improved for people on supervision.
Background: Between 2015 and 2018, the state’s average daily prison population increased 15 percent, reaching an all-time high of 2,468 people in July 2018. During this period, the female prison population increased 30 percent, far outpacing the growth of the male prison population, which increased 13 percent. This growth has created capacity pressures for DOC, which is operating near capacity and is facing associated challenges (e.g., a lack of programming space in the state’s primary female prison facility due to crowding), especially for the female population. Each year from 2015 to 2018, more than 42 percent of admissions to prison were the result of a probation revocation. Additional case-level data analysis is needed to better understand the dynamics of supervision revocations (including the nature of violations, violation responses and sanctioning by supervision officers, and judicial responses to violation behavior), but many leaders and stakeholders attribute revocations, at least in part, to a lack of necessary community-based programming for mental illnesses, substance addictions, and cognitive behavioral interventions. For people released from prison in 2014, the three-year return-to-custody rate for those released to probation supervision—37.7 percent—was more than 15 percentage points higher than for those who were released without a subsequent term on probation—22 percent.
Update: In December, CSG Justice Center staff continued to engage with judges, district attorneys, and leadership from Maine DOC to better understand the factors driving trends in the state’s prison and probation populations. CSG Justice Center staff reviewed analysis of data provided by the Maine Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and Maine Department of Corrections (DOC) with Justice (Superior Court Judge, Augusta) to learn about sentencing and revocation practices among judges in Maine. CSG Justice Center staff also spoke with Attorney (Kennebec and Somerset Counties) about charging and prosecution practices in Maine that contribute to trends in prison and jail populations. Analysis of AOC and DOC data presented in December showed that a relatively high proportion of prison admissions in Maine are for people sentenced for nine months to one year, and that of people receiving such a sentence, the length of stay in DOC was often much shorter. The number of admissions to prison for violations of probation increased 33 percent between 2012 and 2018 but remained stable as a proportion of total admissions during this period (42 percent of admissions). Stakeholders continued to highlight the lack of necessary community-based treatment options as a factor driving prison admissions in Maine.
Analysis Area 3: Study how Maine’s criminal justice system affects people differentially by race, ethnicity, and gender.
Background: As of 2014, the incarceration rate for black people in Maine was nearly six times the incarceration rate for white people. In 2018, black people made up an estimated 1.6 percent of the state’s population but accounted for 11 percent of the prison population. In the same year, Native Americans accounted for an estimated 0.7 percent of Maine’s population but made up 3 percent of the state’s prison population. State leaders are keenly interested in the intersectionality of race and gender dynamics at each key decision point in the criminal justice system, and CSG Justice Center staff are seeking relevant data from state and local agencies in Maine.
Update: In December, CSG Justice Center staff presented analyses of race and gender dynamics in Maine’s criminal justice system to the Commission to Improve the Sentencing, Supervision, Incarceration and Management of Prisoners. Analysis of data from Maine AOC showed that black and Native American people sentenced to prison between FY2016 and FY2019 had a lower median number of prior convictions than white people sentenced to prison during that period. An analysis of prior convictions by gender showed that men sentenced to prison had a higher median number of prior convictions than women sentenced to prison in the same period. Black people constituted around 1 percent of the state’s population in 2017, but made up 11 percent of the state’s prison population and 5 percent of the state’s probation population in 2018.
Analysis Area 4: Analyze how Maine’s criminal justice system serves victims of crime.
Background: Maine has low rates and amounts of victim compensation, despite increases in violent crime. Half of homicides in Maine arise from intimate partner relationships, and the state needs more access to better-run programs to prevent abusive behavior that often escalates to even more serious crimes.
Update: In December, CSG Justice Center staff continued to work with the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault, and the Maine Crime Victim Compensation Program to better understand the challenges associated with domestic violence and serving victims of crime in the state. Information provided from the Maine Crime Victim Compensation Program showed a decrease in state revenue for the program between 2017 and 2019 but an increase in program expenditures during this period. State revenues for the program remain higher than expenditures, but an increase in revenues would allow more victims to be served.
Analysis Area 5: Assess pretrial decision-making systems, including the availability and use of diversion programs; analyze indigent defense policy and practice.
Background: Maine’s pretrial release system relies upon non-judicial, non-attorney bail commissioners who collect fees from the people whose bail they are setting. This system has been criticized in recent years as uninformed and outdated. Maine’s indigent defense system relies entirely on private attorneys and has been criticized for placing the case-related interests of indigent defendants in conflict with the financial interests of the attorneys appointed to represent them. Maine leaders are interested in data- and policy-related assessments of these areas of the criminal justice system through JRI.
Update: In December, CSG Justice Center staff again spoke with an attorney, who represents the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (MACDL) on the Commission to Improve the Sentencing, Supervision, Incarceration and Management of Prisoners regarding challenges with Maine’s bail and indigent defense processes. CSG Justice Center staff also spoke with Justice (Superior Court Judge, Augusta), Criminal Process & Specialty Dockets Manager (Maine AOC), and Process Auditor (Maine AOC) about the history and use of the crime of “Violation of Conditions of Release” (VCR) and discussed possible alternatives since VCR accounts for over 20 percent of arrests in Maine.
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o 12/4: Meeting with Executive Director (Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault) to review data analyses to be presented to the Commission to Improve the Sentencing, Supervision, Management and Incarceration of Prisoners on December 11. Discussion also included broader policy and political considerations ahead of the 2020 legislative session in Maine.
o 12/4: Meeting with Executive Director (ACLU Maine) and Deputy Director (ACLU Maine) to review data analyses to be presented to the Commission to Improve the Sentencing, Supervision, Management and Incarceration of Prisoners on December 11. ACLU Maine staff also provided information on their criminal justice-related policy objectives in 2020.
o 12/5: Meeting with Commissioner (Maine DOC) and Director of Strategic Initiatives (Maine DOC) to review analyses of sentencing data and Maine DOC data ahead of the presentation to the commission on December 11.
o 12/5: Meeting with District Attorney (Kennebec and Somerset Counties) to review analyses of sentencing data and Maine DOC data ahead of the presentation to the commission on December 11.
o 12/5: Meeting with Justice (Superior Court Judge, Augusta), Criminal Process & Specialty Dockets Manager (Maine AOC), and Process Auditor (Maine AOC) to review analyses of sentencing data provided by AOC ahead of the presentation to the commission on December 11.
o 12/5: Meeting with House Representative (House Co-chair, Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety) to review analyses of sentencing data and DOC data ahead of the meeting of the commission on December 11. Rep. also provided details on ongoing policy research being conducted by legislative committees and how those efforts were likely to interact with Justice Reinvestment in 2020.
o 12/6: Meeting with Representative (State Representative/Commission co-chair) and State Senator/Commission co-chair to review analyses of sentencing data and Maine DOC data ahead of the presentation to the commission on December 11.
o 12/6: Meeting with Governor, Legislative Director (Governor’s Office), Senior Advisor (Governor’s Office), and Senior Council (Governor’s Office) to review analyses of sentencing and DOC data to be presented to the commission on December 11. Governor Mills personally reviewed each slide in the draft presentation and asked thoughtful questions about the nature of the analysis, reaction of other state leaders and stakeholders, and more.
o 12/11: Presentation to the Commission to Improve the Sentencing, Supervision, Management and Incarceration of Prisoners on analysis of sentencing data provided by the Maine AOC and corrections data provided by the Maine DOC. Members of the commission voted to introduce legislation to extend the commission into 2020 and to schedule a future event (in late January or early February 2020) during which members of the commission could receive further analyses, discuss specific policy proposals, and learn from the work of other active commissions or task forces to craft impactful criminal justice policies for Maine. The 2019 report of the commission, including data analyses conducted by CSG Justice Center staff, was submitted to the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety and the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary on December 16.
o 12/11: Presentation to state leaders on a work group looking at the impact of drugs on the criminal justice system in Maine and potential changes to Maine’s drug trafficking statutes. The presentation from CSG Justice Center staff included only slides from previous presentations as part of Justice Reinvestment in Maine and aimed to show the impact of drug activity on arrests, case filings, prison and jail populations, etc.
• 12/2: Call with DHHS Deputy Commissioner, Director of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, and Chief Forensic Psychologist about the agency’s efforts to expand behavioral health treatment in correctional facilities; improve access to treatment and programming in the community; and impact related services, such as housing, education, transportation, etc., for people with behavioral health conditions in Maine.
• 12/6: Call with Director of Strategic Initiatives (Maine DOC) to discuss logistics for the upcoming commission meeting on December 11.
• 12/6: Call with Deputy Commissioner (Maine DOC) to discuss current programming and services within MDOC being provided through WellPath, the state’s contracted correctional health care provider.
• 12/12: Call with staff from the Office of MaineCare (DHHS) to discuss efforts to expand health coverage—including for behavioral health conditions—to many low-income Mainers. Discussion included the successes and challenges of expanding the state’s program, coverage of various services, linkages to care and treatment, necessary improvements to the program, and more.
• 12/16: Call with Director of Strategic Initiatives (Maine DOC) to discuss the commission’s report to the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety and the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary.
This month, CSG Justice Center research staff focused on analyzing sentencing, prison, and probation data. A large proportion of time was spent analyzing the complex probation data set provided to the CSG Justice Center by the Maine Department of Corrections.
New Insights Gleaned:
Each year, two-thirds of all probation starts are for felony probation cases. About half of felony probation starts are for people released onto probation from prison. There are judicial regions in the state that use straight probation in just 5 percent of cases. People terminated from probation for a violation of probation are staying on supervision for a median of 14 months before their supervision is terminated. This aligns with probation officer reports that there is a graduated sanctions grid used before a revocation is enforced. While there was some probation violation information included in the data received by the CSG Justice Center, it was not pulled in a way that adequately depicts what is happening on community supervision. CSG Justice Center researchers will be making an additional data request in 2020 to conduct further analyses.
• 12/3: Data Analyses: Analyzed releases from prison. In 2018, 48 percent of releases from prison were onto probation. Another 45 percent were discharges into the community. Another 5 percent were releases from DOC onto Supervised Community Confinement Program, which is still under the jurisdiction of the DOC.
• 12/4: Data Analyses: Analyzed the length of stay for releases from prison, grouping lengths of stay into categories. In 2018, the largest number of releases from prison were for less than the 9 months and 1 day defined as a prison sentence by statute. Of these 441 releases in 2018, more than half were people who entered prison for a new commitment.
• 12/5: Data Analyses: Analyzed probation beginnings. Determined that about two-thirds of the state’s probation starts are for a felony offenses. Just a handful of misdemeanor offenses can be placed on probation. These include domestic violence assault, unlawful possession of a scheduled drug, OUI, assault, and domestic violence terrorizing. Between 2012 and 2018, probation starts with a sentence to probation decreased 3 percent, while probation starts after a release from prison increased 6 percent.
• 12/6: Phone call with Maine Department of Corrections staff member to discuss the snapshot probation numbers and compare the case-level data results with those reported by the state in a previous email.
• 12/7: Data Analyses: Analyzed sentences to prison (including split sentences) and probation by judicial region. Rural counties have a larger proportion of sentences to prison than to probation.
• 12/8: Data Analyses: Analyzed felony probation terminations by length of stay on probation. The median length of stay for people discharged from probation in 2018 was 24 months. The median length of stay for people terminated with a probation violation was 14 months.
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