With the legislature in full swing now, the work on our bills is going at lightening speed.

The hearing for the solitary confinement bill will be before the Criminal Justice Committee on February 17th. If you’re interested in attending the hearing and testifying, or if you’d just like to go to show your support, email me and I’ll get you details.

On February 23rd, People of Conscience will head to Augusta to share their thoughts on limiting solitary confinement with legislators. If you consider yourself a person of conscience and would like to participate, email me at info@aclumaine.org. The day will begin at 9am at the Welcome Center at the State House. Rich Killmer, the Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, will briefly speak on why religious people believe solitary confinement is an issue of torture, and thus a moral issue. We will then have a brief explanation of the bill and training for people on how to discuss the issue with legislators.  The day will be a great way to show your support for the bill and share your story with your elected official. We hope you’ll join us!

A broad coalition has endorsed Representative Schatz’s bill to limit the use of solitary confinement:

A number of organizations and local unions are considering endorsing the bill as well.  To learn more about solitary confinement and this specific bill, visit our new webpage on the issue.

Individuals can endorse the bill as well! Sign our petition by visiting www.endsolitary.org to sign a petition endorsing the bill. 

MPBN recently covered another one of our priority bills – Senator Damon’s bill to ban the use of a specific kind of surveillance camera. Listen to the story here. The hearing for this bill will be before the Transportation Committee on February 5th. Again, if you’re interested in going, email me and I will get you more details. This new technology has huge privacy implications. Right now if you’re driving around South Portland and you pass a cruiser, that cruiser may be photographing your license plate number and it’s general location and storing that information in a database. More information will follow soon on ways to be involved.