News & Commentary

On January 21st, the ACLU of Maine, the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, the Maine Council of Churches and the Portland Branch of the NAACP submitted a letter to the Maine Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee requesting an OPEGA (Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability) Review of health care in Maine state correctional facilities. Read the press release here.

On Monday morning, the ACLU of Maine was fortunate to attend the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Breakfast, hosted by the NAACP Portland Branch.  It was a inspiring event, honoring the legacy of Dr. King. The keynote speaker was former Secretary of Defense, U.S Representative and U.S Senator, William Cohen of Maine.  In his address, Cohen reflected on racial inequality in the United States today.  Citing severe disparities in poverty, access to health care and incarceration rates, Cohen asserted that we have yet to achieve the vision of Dr. King.

In a fascinating Op-Ed to the New York Times, Yale Professors Jason Stanley and Vesla Weaver explore the impact of contact with the criminal justice system on political participation.

For a number of years, the ACLU has worked to raise awareness of the "school to prison pipeline"--a product of over-policing of public schools, zero-tolerance policies directed at young people, and harsh punishments. The cumulative effect of these policies is a situation where many students--particularly in poorer areas of the country--travelled a seamless path from high school to the criminal justice system. Four years ago, the ACLU published a report on the problems created by the largely unregulated, unsupervised work of school resource officers. The report set out a number of suggestions designed to guide the work of these police officers who are stationed at schools and who take part in school discipline. Fighting against the "school to prison pipeline" has been one of the highest priorities of the ACLU, both at the national level and in the affiliates. Students have rights, and we all have an interest is keeping young people out of the criminal justice system.

Exciting news out of New York as Governor Andrew Cuomo plans this week to announce an executive action that will create a limited medical marijuana program. Nineteen of the fifty states now have medical marijuana laws on the books with nearly one- million patients nation-wide able to legally utilize marijuana to alleviate their medical symptoms.

Two months ago, Federal Judge John Gleeson of the Eastern District of New York issued a powerful “statement of reason” in the case of the United States v. Lulzim Kupa, in which he asserted that mandatory minimum sentences in drug cases have essentially nullified our constitutional right to a trial.   

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation.

Over the last forty years we have seen an 705% increase in the size of our prison population. With 2.3 million people behind bars, we are now the number one incarcerator in the world – followed by China with 1,640,000 and Russia with 618,600. Furthermore, we have an additional 6.9 million people under some sort of correctional supervision.  With our prisons and jails overcrowded, our court systems clogged and corrections budgets soaring, our criminal justice system is maxed out - due largely to low level, non-violent drug offense that carry excessive sentences.

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation.