PDF Toward a Cage-Free Maine: A Restorative Pathway Toward Decarceration and Abolition
First appearing as a three part series in the alternative Maine-based newspaper The Bollard, this extended essay lays out an argument for how to stop the flow of people into the carceral system (through investing in community infrastructure and well-being, utilizing restorative justice processes to respond to harm, and more), how to transform the criminal legal system to open pathways for second chances legislation and earlier avenues for release, how to transform the culture inside prisons to prepare people to return to their communities as soon as possible (through enabling and supporting communication with loved ones on the outside, allowing employment at free world wages, eradicating punitive carceral culture, and more), and how to build a restorative and supported pathway to reentry. The focus is Maine, but the basic argument holds for any state. A top priority in the middle section is confronting the impact of extreme sentences and LWOP sentences by prioritizing second chance legislation and policies for supported early release.