Short ride ends long history in Thomaston

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THOMASTON – Handcuffed and shackled at the waist and feet, 34 inmates from Maine’s best-known prison marched one by one to a big blue bus Monday and started a five-mile ride to the 21st century.

The state has begun moving, busload by busload, most of the 400 inmates at the 178-year-old Maine State Prison across the town line to Warren, where state taxpayers have built a $76 million prison that will bear the same name.

It’s the old one that people have noticed in Thomaston for generations alongside what is now Route 1. The prison is a big brick complex with a history going back to the 1820s, Maine’s first decade as a state.

The prisoners on Monday moved quickly from the old complex into the bus. Most were dressed in short-sleeved light-blue shirts and dark pants, despite a bitter cold wind chill.

Once the inmates were settled on the bus, a Chevrolet Suburban guard vehicle led the way with blue lights flashing and siren sounding, while a similar vehicle followed from behind. Security was heightened even further by a half-dozen armed guards posted outside the vehicles, as well as three trained law enforcement dogs.

Even the bus full of prisoners had flashing blue lights.

A Corrections Department official pointed out that the bus was retrofitted to handle some of Maine’s worst criminals: 138 of the Thomaston inmates being moved are serving time for murder.

Ahead of the inmates was a box van carrying their personal belongings.

As the inmates arrived at the new Warren prison, they were scheduled to attend an orientation, dress in new uniforms and collect their possessions. Each would receive a prisoner handbook.

Some state inmates were moved Sunday, said Denise Lord, associate corrections commissioner. That includes those inmates who live in an assisted living area and are in protective custody, as well as 50 inmates from the Maine Correctional Center in South Windham. In addition, inmates at the former Supermax prison, which is located within the new prison complex in Warren, were moved to other areas in the new facility.

The Thomaston-to-Warren move of inmates, which was expected to take 48 hours, may take longer, said state Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnusson.

Not everything went smoothly, as Corrections Department staffers had recognized.

During the weekend, some inmates at the old prison apparently threw trash into the hallways and tried to flood the corridors, Magnusson said. Nobody was injured.

“We were prepared for problems,” he said. And most inmates were being cooperative, he said.

On Monday, the first blue bus was scheduled to pull out at 8 a.m., but it was delayed until 11:30 a.m.

Corrections Department officials blamed the delay on a mental health inmate who became agitated inside the old prison. During the disturbance, a guard injured his ankle on a stairway while trying to apprehend the inmate who had pushed him, Magnusson said.

Magnusson estimated that moving the 12 to 14 busloads of prisoners would be finished by tonight.

“If we’re not, there’s no penalties,” he said.

Prison staff were expected to work around the clock, shifting prisoners from one facility to the other, he said. Workers from other Corrections Department facilities had come from other prisons around the state to assist with the move.

“I’m just extremely proud of our staff here and at the other facilities,” Magnusson said.

Long before moving day, the inmates were prepared for changes that would occur at the new facility, Warden Jeffrey Merrill said, such as being allowed to keep fewer personal belongings in their cells. Photographs that used to hang on the walls at the old prison must be kept in photo albums, he explained. With the new uniforms, the inmates will no longer need personal clothing.

Prisoners were allowed to take reading material, personal correspondence, televisions and portable radios and compact disc players. They are limited in the number of CDs and video games they may possess.

Items that were not weeded out will be placed in storage, Merrill said.

Before leaving Thomaston, prisoners’ belongings were inventoried and each person was checked for contraband by drug-sniffing dogs. Each had to pass through a metal detector. Inmates were interviewed by medical personal to document any problems, as well as record medications.

“This is really an historical event,” said Merrill. He said Monday’s move marks the first time since 1824 that inmates have been moved to a new maximum-security prison.

Indeed, the concept of time was never far from officials’ thinking.

Magnusson noted that prison staff had been told not to try to rush the move.

“We’ve been there 200 years,” Magnusson said. “Eight hours isn’t going to make a difference.”