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Nicole Lund is a second career student at the University of Maine at Farmington, a visual artist, advocate and former volunteer at the Maine State Prison.
Parole was abolished in Maine in 1976 in an effort to elevate public perception of the criminal justice system. A nationwide push was made for harsher sentencing in what became known as Truth In Sentencing laws.
Parole refers to the supervised release of prisoners before the completion of their full sentence, under certain conditions. Maine, like the rest of the country, has seen a significant rise in prison populations and overcrowding, largely due to increased severity in sentencing. Overcrowding in prisons raises safety concerns for the residents, as well as staff, and further inflates costs due to transfers, transportation to medical and court appointments and the personnel that facilitates these movements.
A parole system can provide a second chance to offenders and even reduce recidivism rates, when carried out with a reentry plan. People age out of their crimes. Imagine spending the rest of your life atoning for the worst act, or accident, you committed as a child or young adult.
Much has changed since the 1970s in the way of rehabilitating offenders. Maine prisons now offer counseling, job training, and other programs such as the Second Chance Pell Grant, which allows incarcerated individuals to acquire higher education. With these rehabilitation programs in place, incarcerated people are able to leave prison better educated and more prepared to be healthy members of society.
However, without the hope of ever being released, the motivation for acquiring new skills and advancing themselves is lost. You and I are no longer the same people we were 10 or 25 years ago, and the same is true for the incarcerated individuals of Maine.
One resident of Maine State Prison has served 15 years of a 55-year sentence and has changed remarkably during his time incarcerated. An unstable and abusive home life led to substance use disorder. He spent his youth in and out of correctional facilities and was unable to finish high school. Since being incarcerated, he earned his GED and is working toward an undergraduate degree. In addition, he supports others inside through various peer mentoring programs and provides hospice care to elderly prisoners. “People change, they really do,” he told me. “I mean, I am living proof of it. Most of the people serving a long sentence here were super young and had some kind of drug or alcohol problem. There are so many good people here who never had a chance to show that side of themselves to anyone because of their issues and being scared and not knowing how to reach out for help.”
The longer an offender spends in prison, the more likely they are to re-offend. Parole can reduce recidivism rates by allowing offenders to reintegrate gradually into society. The likelihood of reoffending is lessened when people are able to avoid the traumatic influences of long term incarceration.
Parole offers economic benefits to the state of Maine. Incarceration is expensive, costing over $200 million a year of taxpayer money to keep the prison system running. Parole can be a more cost-effective solution and allow tax money to be reallocated towards our underfunded schools, early intervention services, guidance counselors and social workers trained to provide help to the most vulnerable of our population, our children.
In lieu of parole, Maine offers inmates the opportunity to apply for executive clemency. Clemency has the potential to grant an incarcerated individual a pardon or reduced sentence. However, the power to grant clemency falls exclusively in the hands of Gov. Janet Mills, a former prosecutor and attorney general. She has only pardoned a very small percentage of applicants. Maine already has a parole board in place, however, few Maine residents benefitted from this board.
Reinstating parole would allow us to use resources we already have to better the lives of Maine residents. Parole would reunite families, better the economy, reduce prison spending and allow people who have worked so hard to rehabilitate themselves a second chance. It’s time to build a more compassionate society that forgives others as so many of us have sought forgiveness in our own lives.