Another interesting day in the life of your trusty ACLU of Maine policy counsel. I started the morning debriefing with Paul McCarrier of the Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine about his trip to Madawaska. He and some other patients and caregivers, including a veteran who uses medical cannabis to treat a variety of conditions, trekked all the way up to the top of the state to ensure the town's \proposal to limit medical marijuana cultivation not encroach on patient or caregiver rights in violation of state law. Fortunately, the proposed ordinance appears limited to dispensary cultivation.
Next, a quick meeting with Shenna about the upcoming 2012 legislative newsletter (stay tuned!) and with Jill to finalize design plans for our ACLU of Maine PRIDE T-shirt (Yes!!).
Zach and I then participated in a meeting with the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, and members of Preble Street Resource Center's Homeless Voices for Justice to discuss how to address due process problems and disproportionate enforcement of Portland's trespass laws.
Then on to Augusta to explore the creation of a hospital level mental health unit at the Maine State Prison. There are a handful of prisoners so mentally ill that they require hospital level care but are also so violent as to be inappropriate to be placed at Riverview Psychiatric Hospital. This new unit would potentially serve adjudicated state prison inmates as well as inmates with similar profiles from County Jails. The concern - however - is that inmates from the Jail system may be pre-trial arrestees, which means they have not been tried or convicted of any crime. Due process and oversight are always important - but seem even more crucial if we are considering placing legally innocent persons into a state prison psychiatric pod against their will where forced medication, restraint, and exposure to extremely aggressive, acutely ill, convicted prisoners are all possibilities.
I ended the day by watching a moving preview for Herman's House, a documentary about Herman Wallace highlighting the brutality of solitary confinement. Mr. Wallace, is one of the "Angola 3", along with Albert Woodfox and Robert King (who came to Maine to support our work to limit solitary confinement). Mr. Wallace has spent over 35 years in solitary confinement in a Louisiana prison in a 6' by 9' cell. Imagine that. Thirty years in a cell where, as he tells us, he can "only make about 4 steps forward before touching the door" and if he makes an "about face" he will bump into something. Mindblowing really - yet America currently holds 25,000 human beings in solitary confinement in our nations prisons. Just watching the short clip is a compelling illustration of why we need to be vigilant about reducing the our use of solitary confinement.
