Panel urges stricter use of probation to reduce state’s prison population

BANGOR – With prisons overflowing and some inmates sleeping on the floors in prison reception areas, Department of Corrections officials are trying to be optimistic that the Legislature will accept a series of nearly 60 recommendations they say would start to reduce the state’s prison population.

Maine has the fastest growing prison population in the nation and its probation caseloads are nearly double the national average. The 115-page report put forward by the Commission to Improve the Sentencing, Supervision, Management and Incarceration of Prisoners passed unanimously through the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee and now awaits consideration by the full Legislature, perhaps as early as next week.

One key recommendation would eliminate probation as a sentencing option for most low-level offenders. Probation is the most heavily used sentencing option in most cases, but caseloads topping 140 offenders per probation officer have made it unmanageable, officials said.

Probation could still be used for low-level sex offenders, domestic violence offenders and repeat drunken drivers, but would be practically eliminated for other Class D and E misdemeanors. Judges will be encouraged to find other sentencing alternatives, such as community service and restitution. The report also suggests reducing the number of years offenders serve probation.

Associate Corrections Commissioner Denise Lord says data indicate that those moves could reduce caseloads from 144 per probation officer to a more manageable 88.

Somerset and Kennebec County District Attorney Everett Fowle, who was on the 17-member commission, wrote in an attached minority report that prosecutors need more alternatives, not fewer, and suggested that eliminating probation for low-level offenders would result in more offenders going to prison.

Fowle notes for example that often felony cases are plea-bargained down to misdemeanors in exchange for a suspended prison sentence and a period of probation. If that alternative is removed, prosecutors will be less apt to accept a plea bargain and more offenders will be sentenced to prison.

The report further recommends increasing the number of “good time” days that an inmate receives from five days per month to nine days. Those convicted of sex offenses, murder or domestic violence will still receive only five days a month, Lord said.

“If this is implemented, we should see reductions in our probation population very soon. We could see results on our prison population in about four to six years,” said Lord.

Meanwhile, the removal of mold from a dormitory at the Downeast Correctional Facility in Bucks Harbor is nearing completion, she said, and inmates may be moved back there by the middle of this month.

About 40 prisoners were moved last month when health officials discovered that mold in the old dormitory building was making some inmates sick. The move has strained other prison facilities, Lord said.

“We are doubling at Bolduc [in Warren]. We are housing about 20 more at the Charleston Correctional Facility than we are supposed to. At the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, we actually have some inmates sleeping on the floor in the reception area,” he said.