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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 early March, CSG Justice Center staff participated in legislative public hearings and work sessions scheduled by the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety (CJPS) that presented bill legislation refined through conversations with stakeholders in the state, including executive branch staff and leadership. In the final days of February, CSG Justice Center staff had been in Maine to meet with members of the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety (CJPS), to present at the Maine Municipal Association Public Safety Summit, and to hold a large meeting with executive branch cabinet members. At that time, CJPS members committed to holding a bipartisan, unanimous vote in support of the 2020 Justice Reinvestment legislation, LR 3256, the following week (the week of March 3, 2020). The cabinet members, particularly Commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), refused to comment directly to CSG Justice Center staff on legislation or policy recommendations, but several attendees signaled a lack of support for key policy options.

When CSG Justice Center staff arrived back in Maine on March 2, 2020, events rapidly unfolded. On that day, CJPS removed LR 3256 from the public hearing calendar due to opposition from sheriffs that surfaced for the first time. To move forward, CSG Justice Center staff met with key sheriffs and began planning a larger stakeholder meeting for the next day. On March 3, the large stakeholder meeting was hosted at the DOC, facilitated by CSG Justice Center staff, and included sheriffs, police chiefs, district attorneys, local and municipal law enforcement, corrections representatives, and representatives from advocacy organizations. The only topic that had full support was to form a new Justice and Behavioral Health Coordinating Council to take another year to look at the criminal justice questions facing Maine. On March 4, the CJPS public hearing on the reduced version of LR 3256 was held. No testimony was provided in opposition to the bill, but there was consensus among those in the room that more time, more study, and a new council would be needed to recommend reforms in Maine. The DOC commissioner provided a letter in support of the pared down bill.

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: After the legislative public hearing during the first week of March, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the nature of technical assistance as it relates to Maine’s prison population. CSG Justice Center staff are in contact with DOC leadership to provide information about federal funding opportunities and other forms of assistance available to address issues related to COVID-19. Conversations are ongoing as priorities and needs shift quickly.

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 propose opportunities for further study and analysis of the disproportionate involvement in the criminal justice and behavioral health systems by race and gender specifically, but also by geography. In March, CSG Justice Center staff heard from stakeholders that the disproportionate impact of systems involvement on some Mainers is a priority for future policymaking and that further research, especially that which focuses on experiences of people in the justice system, is desired.

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: Prior to the closure of the legislative session on March 17, 2020, discussions were ongoing with victim advocacy organizations and state leaders in Maine about improving the array of victims’ services in the state through Justice Reinvestment. These organizations were represented at the large stakeholder meeting on March 3, 2020, hosted by the DOC, and their presence along with that of district attorneys and others, ensured a continued focus on victims of crime in the Justice Reinvestment process in Maine.

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: District attorneys representing counties around the state attended the large stakeholder meeting hosted by DOC on March 3, 2020, voicing their support for reform across the criminal justice system. District Attorney (Knox County) was the most vocal advocate for wider and deeper reform than the Justice Reinvestment policy options suggested for Maine. They joined in their call for more study by the District Attorney’s Association; however, not all members are as reform minded.