Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, August 25, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may have heard me tell the story about a good friend visiting me the summer after we moved to Maine.\u00a0 “I never realized Maine was so religious” she observed.\u00a0 “It’s not,” I replied, “Maine is the least religious state in the least religious part of the country.” Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, August 25, 2019 You may have heard me tell the story about a good friend visiting me the summer after we moved to Maine.\u00a0 “I never realized Maine was so religious” she observed.\u00a0 “It’s … Continue reading
“Then why do I keep seeing all these Redemption Centers?’
Friends, I believe that every county\u00a0jail and prison in Maine is a redemption center.\u00a0 Our new Commissioner of the Department of Corrections says publicly “I am in the redemption business.”\u00a0 Randy Liberty, yes, that is his last name, is the former warden of Maine State Prison, the former Sheriff of Kennebec County, a veteran who has PTSD and the child of a formerly incarcerated person.\u00a0 He and his staff are changing the way we operate the Department of Corrections, with help and oversight from the legislative committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety.\u00a0
This committee used to be comprised of former law enforcement, prosecutors and correctional professionals; now it includes social workers, defense attorneys and advocates for those incarcerated.\u00a0 And we are seeing the difference.\u00a0 In my work with Friends Committee on Maine Public Policy, Maine Prisoners Advocacy Coalition and the new Maine Prisoners Re-entry Network, I can say after almost twenty years of doing this work, that we are seeing new possibilities in our approach to justice in the prison and court systems.\u00a0\u00a0Lifetime law enforcement leaders are stating that “we cannot arrest our way” out of the opioid epidemic; addiction but no treatment centers, mental illness without adequate care and treatment.\u00a0 County sheriffs will tell us that they opearte the biggest mental health facilities in the state.\u00a0 And, as of last April, there were only 16 detox beds for the entire state.\u00a0 So, where do most people detox? In our jails.
As part of my chaplaincy work, I am now working with people leaving incarceration and re-entering our communities.\u00a0 Over 90% of the folks in our prisons and jails in Maine do return and if they do not have good employment, stable housing or community support we know they end up back where they came from, in the same circles that put them inside to begin with.
I have been working with Sophia’s House<\/a>\u00a0and the Maine Prisoners Re-entry Network to recruit and train community mentors who will visit, support and meet with returning citizens prior to and after their release.\u00a0 It’s a program that some of us tried to initiate ten years ago, when we trained over 70 volunteers but the Department would not work with us.\u00a0 That is not the case now.\u00a0 I have been working with Maureen and Cush Anthony, if you are interested, please speak with one of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"