By Meghan V. Malloy
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
AUGUSTA, Maine — A coalition of civil rights advocates, medical professionals and clergy members says solitary confinement in Maine prisons has exacerbated mental illness and physically harmed inmates.
''I am aware that some of the treatment that prisoners receive in our state’s version of solitary confinement not only fails to meet the test of being humane or civil, it is often administered with inadequate oversight and (is) absent of due process,’' Rep. Jim Schatz, D-Blue Hill, said Thursday.
Schatz is sponsoring legislation that would limit time spent in solitary confinement and set standards for which inmates would qualify. The practice is used for disciplinary reasons, to protect a general prison population from an inmate, and to protect an inmate from the population.
L.D. 1611 would establish minimum standards within the Maine Department of Corrections for when solitary confinement is to be used. These would include a time period not exceeding 45 days in segregation unless an inmate has, within the previous 45 days, committed or attempted to commit sexual assault, escape or unspecified acts of violence. It would also ban the use of corporal punishment, chemical agents and physical restraints on inmates in solitary confinement.
A public hearing will be held Feb. 17.
Though several members of the coalition, led by the Maine Civil Liberties Union, said they were not specifically placing blame on Department of Corrections employees, they also referred to the practice as ''torture.’'
''Solitary confinement is torture,’' MCLU Excutive Director Shenna Bellows said Thursday. ''By dehumanizing prisoners, we dehumanize ourselves.’'
Other coalition officials said that segregation for extended periods of time can create or magnify mental illness.
Associate Corrections Commissioner Denise Lord said the department shares the coalition’s goal of reducing the use of segregation, but noted that people have a ''stereotypical view of solitary confinement that invokes images that don’t match reality.’'
Lord said 1.8 percent of Maine prison inmates are in segregation at any time.
The national average, she said, is 5 percent.
Offenses qualifying for segregation vary, but associated behaviors - aggressiveness, inability to control impulses and a need to dominate - are stronger indicators of why they are segregated.
''I’ll publicly say solitary confinement is not something we seek to do,’' Lord said. ''Yes, we do use segregation for a number of reasons, but most, if not all, are supported by good correctional standards and practice.’'
As to whether the practice exacerbates psychological problems, she said: ''I hate to say this, but when inmates enter our facilities, many of them have mental trauma or illness that has already happened. Segregation probably doesn’t help, but many (inmates) are coming in with already significant deficits.’'
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