‘Ticking time bomb’ challenges state Judge deliberating on placement for man who’s spent most of life in prison

PORTLAND – Norman Dickinson, the self-described “ticking time bomb” who has spent the majority of his life behind bars, is challenging state probation officials and the corrections system unlike any other felon.

Paperwork on Dickinson’s cycle of release and relapse fills shelves at the Department of Corrections, while files on others fit neatly in a single manila folder.

Since 1997, he has been moved to a pre-release center, group homes and his own apartment with electronic monitoring. Each time he has violated the conditions of his release, and been sent back to prison, never spending more than a couple of months outside a jail cell.

On Tuesday, Cumberland County Assistant District Attorney Bud Ellis argued that the state had done enough: Dickinson should be sent back to prison to serve the remaining four years, two months that are left on his sentence.

“Our opinion is, the time has come,” Ellis said. “He has burned all his bridges.”

Superior Court Justice G. Arthur Brennan ordered more psychological testing on Dickinson before he decides a sentence.

While Dickinson has failed to follow the rules of probation in the past, the judge said it is worth trying again. “At some point, Mr. Dickinson is going to be among us, and it serves everyone’s interest to be sure that when it happens, he has the best therapeutic foundation,” Brennan said.

Dickinson himself agreed there is a problem, but said it results from spending more than two-thirds of his life behind bars. “I know I’ve got a challenging condition,” he said. “[But] I have been isolated for so long, locked up for so long, I don’t think that I could make it [outside prison] without a lot of supervision.”

Dickinson, 33, has been out of jail for about two years of the last 20. Those periods have been as long as 11 months, and as short as one. One time he had his probation revoked and was sent back to prison for exposing himself to female guards while he was in a county jail waiting for a community placement.

The latest attempt at releasing Dickinson ended this spring after he climbed out his apartment window, mistakenly believing he was about to be arrested for something that he didn’t do. He has been held at the Cumberland County Jail ever since.

He has a social anxiety disorder, substance abuse disorder and uses sexual exhibitionism as a “self-soothing mechanism” said Steven Thomas, a social worker who has evaluated Dickinson. He said that many of Dickinson’s problems result from his near lifetime in prison.

“Mr. Dickinson was socialized in our correctional institutions,” he said. “His mentors were mostly inmates. It has left him with a weak moral compass.”

Because Dickinson is a former resident of the Augusta Mental Health Institute, he is eligible for community-based mental health services when he is released from prison. His lawyer, Neale Duffett, argued that he should be released to finish his probation where he can get the help he needs.

“This is the last, best hope for Norman,” Duffett said. “It is incumbent on the state of Maine to provide the services that he has been denied [in prison].”