Study: Maine prison rate lowest in nation

PORTLAND – Maine’s percentage of residents in prison is the lowest in the nation, according to a federal study.

An analysis of the 2001 prison population by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that Maine’s rate of 127 people in prison for every 100,000 in population was the lowest of any state.

Minnesota was next with 132 per 100,000.

Maine also had the third-lowest total number of state prison inmates, after North Dakota and Wyoming.

Maine’s crime rate also is relatively low.

“Maine still is very much a state of small communities. People know each other,” Denise Lord, associate commissioner of the Department of Corrections, told the Portland Press Herald.

“The crime that is committed in Maine is largely property crime. Even in the violent crime category, most victims know the offender. We don’t get a lot of random or anonymous kinds of crimes.”

Maine’s rate of violent crime was 1.1 offenses per 1,000 people compared to a national rate of 5.1.

“We haven’t had in the state the same kind of sentencing policies that are evident in states with higher incarceration rates,” Lord said.

“We’ve limited use of mandatory minimums or ‘three strikes and you’re out’ sentencing requirements. We still have preserved to a great extent judicial discretion in sentencing.”

In fiscal year 2001, with 1,681 prisoners, the state spent an average of $31,500 per prisoner, the newspaper reported.

The state’s prison population grew to 1,815 by April this year.

“What we’ve built for future capacity is almost entirely occupied at this point,” Lord said. “Our population is continuing to grow. It’s not growing quite as fast as at the beginning of the year but it’s still increasing.”

Voters in November will be asked to approve a bond issue to fund a $14.9 million medium security prison in Machias that would replace the existing Charleston Correctional Facility. A new facility would increase available beds by 61.