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: On March 17, 2020, the Maine legislature ordered the immediate adjournment of the legislative session due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All bills not directly related to the governor’s omnibus budget or support for COVID-19 were not heard. In July 2020, joint standing legislative committees resumed meeting virtually and in limited, physically distant ways and held work sessions and public hearings on bills that were “paused” due to the COVID-19 shutdown in March 2020. As of November 30, 2020, the presiding officers of the Maine legislature were continuing remote work and keeping the Maine State House closed until further notice. Public hearings and work sessions are being held via video conferencing and are open to the public. After not convening since March, the Maine State Legislature will begin its next First Regular Session on Wednesday, December 2, 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 November, MDOC staff continued to produce a once-daily public report of the impact of new policies and practices in line with public health mandates for the safety of people in prison and the staff who work at state prison facilities and county jails. This information is available on the MDOC website. Between January 4, 2020, and November 30, 2020, according to MDOC’s most recent daily update, the institutional correctional population in state prisons has decreased 19 percent (from 2,175 to 1,766 people), and the county jail population has decreased 14 percent (from 1,649 to 1,419 people). MDOC has posted the criteria for releasing individuals on their public website as well.
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 November, Maine’s legislative leaders continued to discuss better and more reliable collection of demographics across Maine’s criminal justice and behavioral health systems to guide 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 November, CSG Justice Center staff continued to monitor opportunities to work with stakeholders to ensure that victims’ issues remain a focus of the Justice Reinvestment process.
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 November, Maine leadership continued to make necessary changes to the pretrial process in response to public health mandates. Beginning June 1, 2020, all courts in Maine resumed normal operating hours, and the Maine Supreme Court is operating under a published, and publicly available phased re-opening plan. Video proceedings are still the preferred method for all court proceedings, and remained so throughout November.
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