News & Commentary

According to shocking new ACLU report titled A Living Death: Life Without Parole for Non Violent Offenses there are 3,278 prisoners serving sentences of life without possibility of parole for non-violent crimes. These crimes include carrying drugs for an abusive boyfriend, stealing tools from a toolshed and stealing a $159 dollar jacket. We are locking up a record number of people – many of which will never see outside a prisons walls again - at a huge financial and human cost. Only 1/5 of the world’s countries allow a sentence as harsh as life without parole. Of those that do, most countries reserve its use for murder or repeated violent crimes.

The front page of today’s New York Times featured an excellent article titled “Seeing the Toll, Schools Revise Zero Tolerance.” It spoke to a growing movement by school administrators in big cities to reconsider "zero-tolerance" policies and other "tough on crime" approaches in light of the effects that they are having on today's young people.

Four months ago, the New York Times published a startling article on the sharp increase in heroin use across New England and the tragic consequences that have accompanied it.  Last year, heroin killed 21 Mainers, three times as many as 2011.  Across the state, many more are battling their addiction, at risk of transmission of blood-borne diseases such as HIV (in 2009, nearly a third of Maine women living with HIV reported injecting drugs) and hepatitis C and facing criminal sanctions and the many consequences of contact with our criminal justice system. This is a tragic public health problem with tremendous human cost. As we look for ways to reduce the harms of substance abuse across our region, it is of the utmost importance that we reach for thoughtful and compassionate health based solutions that protect individuals and our communities.

The Maine State Legislature is gearing up for the 2014 short session - and so are we! We are closely watching any bills that threaten or promote civil liberties. While we haven't taken an official position on any bills yet, here's a list of some bills that we're following:

With 2.23 million people currently behind bars, our prisons and jails are vastly overcrowded, made up of too many people serving sentences for non-violent, low-level drug crimes. We have the dubious distinction of being the number one incarcerator in the world – followed by China with 1.6 million behind bars and Russia with 618,000.

Nearly twelve years have passed since the first prisoner arrived in Guantánamo Bay, making it the longest-standing war prison in U.S. history. Today the prison holds 164 detainees, and it is no less a symbol of our nation’s failure to adhere to the rule of law and human rights than it was in 2002 when it first began housing prisoners.

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

That's how many people are serving life sentences with no chance of parole for nonviolent offenses in the United States according to a new ACLU report A Living Death: Life without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses.

Recently, the Vera Institute and the Prison Law Project completed a report examining sentencing and prison practices in Germany and the Netherlands as compared to the United States.