By C1 Staff
AUGUSTA, Maine — A proposal to allow corrections officers the use of deadly force against prisoners escaping from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham was stripped from a bill that makes other changes to the Maine DOC.
According to the Sun Journal, the provision was requested by the department and would have given correctional officers the same guidelines as those working at high-security Maine State Prison in Warren.
Those supporting the proposal said it made sense due to increasing numbers of dangerous inmates serving time at the Windham facility. Those in opposition said the change was unwarranted, noting that the Windham facility had a high-security unit.
A former state trooper said there wasn’t a history of escape in Maine that warranted such a change.
Committee members said they preferred the model for deadly force to be one that depends on imminent danger to the officer or other people.
The other thing the bill does is change the title of the chief administrative officer at Maine Correctional Center from supernintendent to warden.