20200728-151914-06

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 February, CSG Justice Center staff continued to work with state leaders to hone the proposed policy options relating to behavioral health and the criminal justice system. On February 26, 2020, CSG Justice Center staff were in Augusta to present at the Maine Municipal Association Police Summit, where municipal police chiefs and leaders presented approaches to address the behavioral health needs of individuals who come in contact with law enforcement in their communities. CSG Justice Center staff were asked to present at the summit to provide national context for best practices and research in the area of police and behavioral health collaborations and to discuss the Justice Reinvestment process in Maine, specifically the policy option that Maine create a robust, strategic mechanism for providing behavioral health and crisis services to Mainers at the local level. Also on February 26, 2020, CSG Justice Center staff met with Deputy Chief of Staff (Office of the Governor), Deputy Legal Counsel (Office of the Governor), Senior Policy Advisor and Children’s Cabinet Coordinator (Office of the Governor), Director of Opioid Response (Office of the Governor), Senior Policy Advisor (Office of The Governor), Commissioner (Department of Health & Human Services [DHHS)), Director (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, DHHS), Commissioner of the Department of Corrections [DOC), and Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety [DPS) to discuss Justice Reinvestment policy options. This meeting of executive branch leaders underscored the great work that Maine is already doing on state-level coordination of behavioral health services, and CSG Justice Center staff discussed with executive branch staff what types of strategies would work best in Maine to improve local- and county-level accessibility to those state-level resources.

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 February, CSG Justice Center staff worked with state leaders to hone the proposed policy options relating to the state’s prison population and probation challenges. Three policy options specifically addressed reducing recidivism and reducing reliance on prison sentences in Maine: (1) using presumptive probation for many Class C and some Class B felony crimes, (2) reducing the use of pretrial arrest for Violations of Conditions of Release (VCR) for violations that do not endanger the public and alleged victims; and (3) implementing a continuum or correctional care at the DOC that would more directly address criminogenic risk and needs across both institutional and community corrections, including gender-specific services aimed at reducing the recidivism of women released from prison and women supervised in the community. In February, CSG Justice Center staff reviewed these policy options with representatives of the judiciary: Justice (Superior Court Judge), Judge (District Court Judge, Cumberland County), and Policy Director (Office of the State Court Administrator); representatives from Maine Pretrial Services Executive Director (Maine Pretrial Services) and Deputy Director (Maine Pretrial Services); Public Policy Director (Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence); and Coordinator (Cumberland County Dual Diagnosis Collaborative). In addition to the meeting of executive branch representatives discussed above in Analysis Area 1, CSG Justice Center staff reviewed policy options with Commissioner (DOC) in person and via phone in February and received feedback and guidance on revisions moving forward. Also, in February, CSG Justice Center staff sought policy option review from the Maine district attorneys, the Maine Sheriffs’ Association, and the Maine State Police but did not receive any responses.

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: Policy options in this area advance opportunities for further study and analysis of disproportionate involvement in the criminal justice and behavioral health systems by race and gender specifically, but also by geography. In February, CSG Justice Center staff found that in Maine, further study in this area, particularly the pairing of criminal justice and behavioral health data, would be extremely useful to future policymaking.

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 February, CSG Justice Center staff met with staff from the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence (MCEDV) and the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MECASA) to review revised Justice Reinvestment policy options that reflected feedback and guidance that staff from these agencies provided in January 2020. These agencies continue to be concerned about reductions in use of pretrial arrest for VCR, as they see it as one of the only tools prosecuting attorneys have to deter alleged perpetrators of domestic violence from continued victimization. In February, CSG Justice Center staff continued to try to engage with the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to receive feedback and guidance on the policy option that recommends hiring a full-time staff position to oversee responses to domestic violence among the state’s district attorneys. Feedback from the OAG is pending.

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 Justice Reinvestment.

Update: In February, CSG Justice Center staff conducted follow-up engagement with stakeholders that provided feedback on proposed pretrial and diversion policy options to review revisions to policy options and to receive additional guidance. In particular, CSG Justice Center staff were interested in feedback on the policy option related to the use of pretrial arrest through VCR, which accounts for more than 20 percent of all arrests in Maine. Staff from MCEDV and MECASA provided the critical domestic violence and sexual violence victim perspective, and Justice (Superior Court Judge) provided a historical perspective as one of the drafters of the original VCR law. Justice Stokes reported that the use of VCR was intended to be reserved for “exceptional” cases, but has instead become a routine tool that taxes court operational resources in addition to, in his opinion, additionally criminalizing the behavior of individuals who have not yet been adjudicated as guilty of a crime.