News & Commentary

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation. This week, we bring you highlights from the national ACLU Blog of Rights. What’s Wrong With CISPA We've written extensively about the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protections Act (CISPA) over the last year, but since the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is set to mark the bill up next week, and the full House to vote on it the week after that, we're posting in more depth about its shortcomings. Information sharing isn't offensive per se; it's really a question of what can be shared, with whom, and what corporations and government agencies can do with it. VICTORY! Students Triumph over Private Prison Company’s Bid to Name College Football Stadium For-profit prison company GEO Group announced its decision last night to withdraw the $6 million donation it made to Florida Atlantic University in exchange for naming rights to the school's football stadium. Student groups, faith groups, the ACLU, and other civil rights groups actively campaigned for the university to dissociate from GEO Group. CIA to Promote Head of "Black Site" Where Torture Occurred? According to media reports, the acting director of the CIA's clandestine service has, for the last month, been an official who was "in the chain of command" in the CIA's torture program in the years after 9/11. According to a book by Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the clandestine service, this unnamed official even headed one of the early CIA "black sites"—notorious secret prisons set up overseas to torture detainees. Media reports indicate that the unnamed career officer also reportedly signed off on the destruction of 92 videotapes documenting some of the most brutal mistreatment carried out under the CIA program.

Our colleagues at the ACLU National Prison Project have written a powerful blog post about the torture of a prisoner in Maine. It is worth reading, and the video is difficult to watch but powerful. Here in Maine, the incident has been the subject of on-going reporting by David Hench of the Portland Press Herald.You can read the full text of the ACLU blog post below. Originally posted on the ACLU Blog of Rights.Shocking Video from Maine Prison Shows a Restrained Prisoner Being Tortured with Pepper Spray"You're never going to win… Bottom line is the house wins every time."That's what Maine Correctional Center Captain Shawn Welch said to a prisoner who was strapped into a restraint chair, his face coated with pepper spray and his legs shaking in pain and fear. The entire ordeal was captured in a disturbing video that recently hit the internet. After Captain Welch pepper sprayed prisoner Paul Schlosser in the face, Captain Welch ignored Schlosser's plea that he could not breathe; at one point, Captain Welch responds to Schlosser's pleas for help with the taunt, "Last I heard, I was as useless as tits on a bull."How in the world did this come about?A former military medic, Paul Schlosser has received treatment in prison for both bipolar disorder and depression. After being held in solitary confinement for two months, he began to cut himself – a common response to such long-term isolation. On June 7, 2012, Schlosser pulled off his bandages and refused to be treated. He was then strapped to a restraint chair and confronted by Captain Welch.In the video, we see Schlosser immobilized in the restraint chair and surrounded by officers in riot gear. Schlosser remains compliant until one of the officers pins Schlosser's head to the back of the chair; Schlosser responds by squirming and then spitting at the officer. Without warning, Captain Welch suddenly coats Schlosser's face at close range with pepper spray from a canister only intended to be used on large crowds from a distance of twenty feet or more, according to an investigator's report. Schlosser chokes and fights for breath. He pleads, "I can't breathe, Captain," but Welch does nothing. Instead of following accepted professional standards and rinsing away the liquid, Welch puts a spit hood on Schlosser, effectively trapping the pepper spray against the man's face. For over 20 minutes, Welch, with canister in hand, paces in and out of the small area where Schlosser is being restrained, and refuses to let him wash the burning spray from his face and eyes.Sadly, this is one of many examples of corrections staff abusing restraints and pepper spray, at times with deadly results:

For those of us who are lucky enough to get to spend our first year or two after law school working for a judge, the experience invariably shapes our expectations about who a judge is and how she should go about her work. My judge set a high bar (clerks always use the possessive when referring to their bosses). Justice Susan Calkins was both the model of the kind of lawyer that I hoped to be--one who tries to use the law to make people's lives better--and the kind of judge that I hoped would hear my client's cases--careful, thoughtful, and conscious of the real-world impact of legal interpretation. We decided at the ACLU of Maine that we would write blog posts about women that we admire for Women's History Month, and it didn't take me long to decide on a topic (though Ed's choice of Joan Benoit Samuelson is pretty great too). Susan Calkins began her legal career at Pine Tree Legal Assistance in 1970, as a fellow in the Presque Isle Office. Three years later, she became the director of Pine Tree, which she led until 1976. The 1970s were a time of great expansion and experimentation in legal services. The landmark welfare reform cases like Goldberg v. Kelly gave lawyers for the poor new opportunities to protect their clients. Pine Tree Legal was at the forefront of these developments, and Susan, her husband Hugh and Portland attorney Bob Mittel brought one of the most important civil rights cases of the era, Maine v. Thiboutot, which recognized that the federal civil rights act, 42 U.S.C. 1983, can vindicate statutory as well as constitutional rights. Susan was appointed to the Maine District Court in 1980, and she was later named the first Chief Judge of that court. She served briefly on the Maine Superior Court, and in 1998 she was appointed by Governor King to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, where she served until 2007. I worked for Justice Calkins from 2002 to 2003, and one of the things that really stuck with me was how hard she worked. I don't think I was ever in the office before her, and on days when the Court was not hearing cases, it seemed like she rarely left her office--reading through briefs, drafting notes to herself, her clerks, and her colleagues, drafting opinions. The first case that I was assigned to research as a clerk involved moose hunting. Not having studied moose hunting law in school, I was inclined to think this was perhaps a joke played on the new clerk from out-of-state. But for Justice Calkins, there was really no such thing as a joke case--every case involved real people, and the court's decisions would have a substantial impact on their lives. She was always cognizant of that, and she taught us to be cognizant of it as well. If you visit the Maine Supreme Judicial Court courtroom in Portland, you can see Justice Calkins's picture over the seating gallery to the right of the bench. John Hart Ely once wrote of his judge, Chief Justice Earl Warren, that you don't need many heroes if you choose carefully. I have always found captures my feelings about my judge as well.

Dorothea Dix, born in Maine in 1802, was a champion of the rights of the mentally ill before most people even considered the idea that the mentally ill should have rights. As a volunteer Sunday School teacher for women incarcerated in the East Cambridge Jail in Massachusetts, Dix witnessed conditions that would shape her work forever: the jail was unheated and dirty, and no consideration was given to the care of the mentally ill. Her observations led Dix to think seriously about the treatment of prisoners, and particularly the mental ill. She began to read all the available research, interview doctors and study the work of other reformers. Realizing that she could not fully know what she could not see, she set out to visit many of the jails in the state. Her survey of the Massachusetts jails would be the first of many across the nation and Europe. She worked with lawmakers to establish mental health care facilities and reform policies on care for the mentally ill. She even managed to convince Pope Pius IX of the need for reform in Rome’s prisons. At a time when it was rare for women to be given an audience to influence public policy, Dix undertook a bold advocacy campaign. At a time when little thought was given to the rights of the mentally ill, she was a beacon of hope in a world that had been plagued by abuse and neglect. She should be remembered as an advocate for the most vulnerable among us. The ripples of her work are still felt today.

On January 8, 1962, a letter appeared at the Supreme Court. It was written in pencil, from a jail cell at Florida State Prison, and began: “To the Honorable Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States, Comes now the petitioner, Clarence Earl Gideon, a citizen of the United States of America, in proper person, and appearing as his own counsel.”   Clarence Gideon was serving a five-year sentence for stealing bottled drinks and vending machine coins when he handwrote that letter. In it, he asked the Supreme Court to hear his case and rule that the right to counsel, as protected by the Sixth Amendment, should apply to every state, even in non-capital cases. He had been prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced without a lawyer, and he thought that was un-American.   On March 18, 1963 – exactly fifty years ago today – the Supreme Court agreed with Clarence Gideon. In its landmark decision, the Court found that the right to counsel is a fundamental right that no state may ignore. Poor defendants in criminal cases have a constitutional right to legal counsel even if they cannot afford it.   The ACLU supported Gideon by filing a friend of the court brief and working closely with Abe Fortas, a future Supreme Court Justice who argued the case. In the fifty years since, we’ve worked tirelessly to ensure that the right to counsel is honored. Unfortunately, that’s been a much harder struggle than we would have hoped. As the Portland Press Herald wrote this morning, “Significantly more resources go to pay prosecutors than defenders, creating a dangerous imbalance in what is supposed to be a system in which all people are equal before the law. This is the kind of thing that the Supreme Court tried to fix in the Gideon case. Unfortunately, that work is far from done.”   Indigent defense services all around the country are drastically underfunded, preventing states from providing effective assistance of counsel, not to mention investigators and experts. To learn more about why the right to counsel isn’t being applied as often or effectively as it should, read today’s blog post at ACLU.org or this article from Friday’s New York Times.   Still, despite all the concerns we have over indigent defense, Gideon v. Wainwright remains a landmark decision, and its significance is manifold even if its application has been insufficient. No better example exists than Clarence Gideon himself.   The Court’s ruling was great news for Gideon, but it was only the first step towards justice – he still had to face a retrial. This time he came armed with a lawyer, and the inconsistencies of the prosecution quickly came to light. Gideon had originally been convicted largely on the basis of one eyewitness, whose testimony was torn apart on better cross-examination. As other new and important details came to light, serious doubt was cast on Gideon’s guilt. Sure enough, in his second trial he was acquitted on all charges.   Gideon’s story is as improbable as it is important. If you want to know more about him and the details of his trial, I highly suggest you read Gideon’s Trumpet, by Anthony Lewis. It’s a fabulous book with insight into many aspects of the case, as well as the structure of the Supreme Court and their system for handling the thousands of legal requests they get every year. If nothing else, it is a heartwarming portrayal of a system that made it possible for a handwritten letter from an inmate to become the foundation for a landmark decision that changed the course of law in the United States.   There is no better way to honor the memory of Clarence Gideon and his unlikely path to justice than to recommit ourselves to the principle of indigent defense and to ensure that no one has to stand trial without someone at their side to argue their case.    

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation. Solitary Confinement Report: From 2009 to present, Maine has reduced its population being held in its solitary confinement Special Management Unit by over 70 percent. Earlier this week, we released a report on how this happened called Change is Possible: A Case Study of Solitary Confinement Reform in Maine. The report documents a successful seven-year effort to reduce the use of solitary confinement in Maine. Read the report, view a slideshow of images from Maine State Prison, and learn how to take action here.   In LGBT rights: On Tuesday, Colorado passed legislation legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples. Two Wednesdays from now, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) brought by Edie Windsor. You can learn more in this Reuters column. The boy scouts of America will survey its members about attitudes around lifting the ban on gay scouts. Read more here or here   Death Penalty: Maryland will likely become the 18th state to reject the death penalty. A man exonerated from his death sentence was at the Maryland state house while the legislature voted. Read about that here. Meanwhile opponents of the death penalty in Delaware have introduced legislation to repeal the death penalty in that state. The governor there has not yet taken a position on the issue.

Images from the Maine State Prison, taken to accompany our new report about solitary confinement reform in Maine, Change is Possible. Read the report and see other accompanying materials, including a podcast interview with Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte, here.

This content is cross-posted from aclu.org.  In March 2009, Atul Gawande wrote in the New Yorker that successful solitary reform in England had left fewer prisoners in "extreme isolation" in that entire country than in the state of Maine. Four years later, Maine has reduced the population of its solitary confinement Special Management Unit (SMU) by over 70 percent. While the sting of being singled out may have motivated some, Maine's reforms were actually the result of a seven-year effort that is documented in a new report out today from the ACLU of Maine, Change Is Possible: A Case Study Of Solitary Confinement Reform In Maine. We hope this report will serve as a useful case study of what is possible and as a model for achieving significant change across the nation. As the report describes, in addition to reducing the overall SMU population, prisoners who do end up in solitary in Maine spend less time there, are treated like human beings while confined, and are shown a clear path to reentry into the general prison population. All of this has been accomplished without compromising the safety of prison staff or other prisoners, and with significant cost and resource savings. Maine's successful reforms represent a rebuttal to everyone who declares that solitary reform cannot or should not be done. In an interview last year, Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte, who presided over the reform, told us why he believes it was the right thing to do.

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation. Militarization of the Police Earlier this week, we participated in a nationwide coordinated public records requests with other ACLU affiliates to learn more about the increasing militarization of the police. Click here to read about disturbing examples of police use of military training and equipment. Zach’s blog summarizes our concerns. Voting Rights Act Before the Supreme Court Last Week the supreme court heard the case of Shelby County V. Holder--a challenge to Section V of the Voting Rights Act. Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office, has her thoughts on that day here. Stephen Colbert hilariously weighs in with his take here. DOMA We hope the Supreme Court will rule in our favor on the upcoming DOMA case. Bill Clinton, the president who signed DOMA into law, concludes in this Op-Ed that DOMA is unconstitutional. We’re optimistic that Edie Winsor will find success and justice before the Supreme Court.    Reproductive Freedom This week, Arkansas passed the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, banning abortions after 12 weeks. The ACLU of Arkansas has vowed to fight the new laws in court. Read more here.   Compromise A bill proposed to address teacher concerns would have gutted recently passed Maine laws designed to protect students from unnecessary physical restraint.  However, the updated version assuages teacher concerns while leaving student protections intact. The ACLU of Maine was pleased to find solutions that protect both safety and civil liberties. Read more here.