Maine prisoners might have entry to cheaper telephone calls after state lawmakers agreed to eradicate some charges and cap costs at charges set by the Federal Communications Fee at jails and prisons.
The revision to state regulation is a small however significant step for households of incarcerated folks, who generally battle to afford telephone calls as a consequence of excessive per-minute charges and charges. Prisoners can’t store for the most effective telephone plan and should pay the speed negotiated by the ability with a personal firm. In Maine, that may quantity to hundreds of {dollars} for every household.
“Incarceration is a household affair,” mentioned Commissioner Randall Liberty, who oversees the state Division of Corrections and whose father frolicked in Maine State Jail. “Similar to habit and psychological well being is, the entire household is concerned on this and except we now have good human contact, it doesn’t go effectively.”
The brand new regulation units a ceiling on the per-minute worth Maine jails and prisons can cost inmates to make a telephone name and ties it to the interstate price set by the FCC. The present interim price cap set by the FCC for jail calls is 12 cents per minute, and 21 cents per minute at jails with lower than 1,000 residents, which all Maine county jails fall beneath. In some instances, the brand new regulation additionally permits for restricted, free requires jail inmates with low balances of their jail accounts.
“I’m past ecstatic. That is an instance of fine public coverage the place all of us work collectively,” mentioned Courtney Allen, who has advocated for years to decrease the price of calls within the jails.
Allen was unable to afford 15-minute calls at occasions between her son Wyatt, 14, and his father, who has been incarcerated on and off all through his life. Allen mentioned she has labored on a number of payments within the state legislature, however this was crucial for that motive.
The regulation doesn’t accomplish every thing, Allen mentioned. Folks in jail earlier than trial and serving brief sentences might pay as much as 21 cents a minute for a telephone name, and they won’t obtain expanded entry to free calls with their household or lawyer like folks within the state prisons.
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The invoice unanimously handed the Maine Home and Senate, and was signed by Gov. Janet Mills.
Cap on prices
The FCC has labored for a number of years to decrease what it characterizes as “egregiously excessive charges” charged to incarcerated folks to make telephone calls. The company has capped interstate telephone name costs, however courts have dominated that the FCC can’t regulate the value of in-state calls.
The Maine Division of Corrections at the moment costs prisoners 9 cents per minute via a contract with Legacy Inmate Communications. The division receives 5 cents again every minute, which is deposited in an account devoted to offering sources to the jail’s residents.
The division’s contract with Legacy expires in June. The regulation doesn’t take impact till Oct. 1 and solely impacts contracts renewed or renegotiated after that date.
The FCC’s interim price cap permits prisons to barter for a 2-cent fee with name suppliers and bump the cap from 12 cents to 14 cents per minute, based on a spokesman for the federal workplace.
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The Maine Division of Corrections is dedicated to staying at its decrease present price of 9 cents, Liberty mentioned. However the significance of the brand new regulation is it might’t transfer increased than the FCC price, guaranteeing that the state gained’t drive giant will increase sooner or later.
Cash from the calls is used to pay for health gear, sports activities leagues and music packages for prisoners.
A letter signed by 300 males on the Maine State Jail inspired lawmakers to not strip the division of its potential to gather cash from telephone calls, mentioned Olland Reese, who drafted the letter and is serving a 47-year sentence for homicide. Telephone calls price 30 cents a minute earlier in his sentence, and the present price was extra cheap, he mentioned.
The regulation additionally will cease the state and telephone service suppliers sooner or later from charging charges to attach a name or terminate a name earlier than it connects on the prisons. Corporations additionally won’t be able to dam calls to numbers with out prior billing relationships and should supply a price quote earlier than connecting a name.
Prisoners in Maine with lower than $10 of their facility account may even now have entry to half-hour of free phone time per week to speak with household in addition to a further half-hour to talk to their lawyer, based on the regulation. The division anticipates paying for these calls from its basic fund, Liberty mentioned.
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“I acknowledge the significance of the residents with the ability to talk with their households. (It’s) critically essential, no matter what they’ve of their monetary account,” Liberty mentioned.
Totally different requirements at jails
Folks in Maine county jails is not going to see the identical drop in prices or free telephone time.
County jails will nonetheless have the choice to cost charges on linked and early terminated calls. Corporations contracted with the jails to supply inmate telephone providers may even have the choice to dam a accumulate name to an individual it doesn’t have a previous billing relationship with, based on the regulation.
Folks in jail pre-trial or serving brief sentences may even not obtain free calls to households or their attorneys.
“The state mustn’t revenue off their incarceration and will do every thing they will do to remain linked to their households,” mentioned Meagan Sway, coverage director for the ACLU of Maine.
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The regulation is a “good begin,” she mentioned. Most individuals in jail are there previous to their conviction and there may be extra that could possibly be performed to assist households keep linked, Sway mentioned.
The Maine Sheriffs Affiliation agreed to help the invoice after free calls and prohibition on gathering charges have been stripped from the jail part of the laws. Maine’s elected sheriffs are answerable for the operation of county jails.
The sheriffs affiliation didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark from The Maine Monitor.
With out the help of the sheriffs, the invoice wouldn’t have handed, mentioned Rep. Richard Pickett (R-Dixfield), who sits on the state Prison Justice and Public Security Committee that labored on the invoice.
Pickett mentioned he additionally wouldn’t have agreed to the invoice if the cash wasn’t coming again to profit the inmates.
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“It’s a step in the best course and I be ok with that, and so long as it’s going to profit the residents they usually’re going to get issues they didn’t have earlier than, it’s a win-win,” Pickett mentioned.
Rep. Charlotte Warren (D-Hallowell) credited the invoice for shifting “the ball down the sphere,” however there may be extra that must be performed to decrease prices and make costs constant between county jails, she mentioned. Extra schooling and conversations with sheriffs is required.
“I assure you there will likely be a invoice about this subsequent session. There’s extra to do. I don’t assume that is going to go away,” mentioned Warren, who has reached her time period restrict within the state Home of Representatives.
Unspent income
Telephone contracts are a profitable income stream for correctional amenities. County governments can earn hefty commissions by agreeing to cost name charges effectively above market worth.
The jails safe these charges via contracts with a few of the largest jail telecom firms within the nation, together with Securus Applied sciences and GTL.
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The cash earned from the telephone contract have to be deposited in an “Inmate Profit Fund.” Objects bought by the ability from the fund should profit the folks on the jail or jail, akin to cable and newspaper subscriptions, substance use therapy, haircuts, sports activities gear and enrichment packages. The cash can’t be spent on bills to function the jail.
A share of each telephone name a prisoner makes is paid again to the jails from the telephone vendor.
Maine county jails collectively had $2 million sitting unspent of their inmate profit funds as of March 31.
Androscoggin County had the most important stability of $717,122 in its inmate profit fund on the finish of the third quarter of the fiscal yr.
The jail spent roughly $230,000 on haircuts, postage and telephone requires indigent inmates in addition to a GED trainer on the Androscoggin County Jail, mentioned Jail Administrator Main Jeff Chute. The pandemic has diminished the variety of outdoors academics and packages the jail has been in a position to supply, and there are plans to restart some this summer season that will likely be paid for from the fund, he mentioned.
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Chute couldn’t give a motive why the jail had not spent more cash for inmates.
“It’s being spent,” Chute mentioned. “We’ve at all times carried a reasonably excessive stability. We’re fairly good with cash right here.”
On the finish of final yr, the division additionally had a $1.3 million stability throughout 5 amenities’ inmate profit accounts, based on division monetary information.
The pretty giant unspent stability offers the division flexibility to handle emergent wants and enormous purchases for the roughly 1,600 residents, Liberty mentioned. He mentioned the stability wasn’t “an extreme quantity.”
The division spent $1 million in 2021 on providers and packages paid by the prisons’ inmate profit accounts, based on division monetary information. The division spent $960,000 in 2020.
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A number of locations have made telephone calls free for prisoners, together with New York Metropolis and San Francisco County. Connecticut additionally stopped making prisoners pay for calls final yr.
Liberty opposed eliminating the state’s potential to earn cash from prisoner telephone calls due to the packages it funds. It could possibly be detrimental to prisoners to tie funding to the state’s Normal Fund and the political will of the state legislature and governor’s workplace, he mentioned.
“The political pendulum swings forwards and backwards, as does the economic system,” Liberty mentioned.
The burden to pay for these packages is as an alternative handed off to households, mentioned Jan Collins, on behalf of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition. Taxpayers contribute to working jails and prisons, however the price of minimal advantages like leisure gear, substance use packages, haircuts and cable “is foisted on people who find themselves already financially stretched,” she mentioned.
“Different states have performed away with all costs for telephone calls. If Maine is really critical about group security and rehabilitation of those that are incarcerated, it can observe the lead of these states,” Collins mentioned.
Spectrum News Maine premieres In Focus Maine, a weekly public-affairs program, Sunday, June 30. The half-hour program airs at 10:30 a.m. and will feature discussions with newsmakers, including government officials and expert analysts, on issues affecting Mainers.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is in the premiere episode, with Josh Robin, Spectrum News’s chief national correspondent, conducting the interview. She describes the mass shooting in Lewiston, which happened in October 2023, as “the darkest day in Maine history in my life.”
Collins also spoke on the rift between parties in D.C., and those who seek to work with those across the aisle. “I would like the people of this country to know that despite the extreme hyper-partisanship that we’re seeing in Washington, that there are people who work hard every day for a better America, and to come together on legislation to try to improve life for everyday Americans,” she said. “And we tend to work together, Democrats and Republicans.”
Spectrum News Maine, owned by cable operator Charter Communications and available to its Spectrum subscribers, debuted earlier this year.
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Local In Focus programs are on the air elsewhere in the Spectrum News group, including in New York City, upstate New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida (Orlando and Tampa), Texas, North Carolina and California.
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The Charles Osgood oil-on-canvass portrait of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1840. Courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum
The Bowdoin College Class of 1825 is revered as the greatest in the school’s history for its many legendary graduates. Yet, despite his later distinction, one of those American legends was nearly expelled.
Future novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, perhaps best known for “The Scarlett Letter” spent most of his youth traipsing around the family summer home in Raymond, and he spent a great deal of time preparing for the rigid Bowdoin College entrance examinations.
Hawthorne’s uncle, Robert Manning, then sent his nephew to Portland to study under the tutelage of a “stingy old curmudgeon,” Rev. Caleb Bradley of Stroudwater. By August of 1821, Hawthorne had made the cut.
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Then, Bowdoin’s campus had only five faculty and just three buildings — Maine Hall, Massachusetts Hall and the Chapel. Winthrop Hall was under construction.
Most students worked long and hard to pass the exams but, once admitted, many later seemed hell-bent to toss it away. Hawthorne appears to have been one of those students.
“I was an idle student, negligent of College rules” and preferred “… to nurse my own fancies.” Undoubtedly, it was not helpful that Moorhead’s Tavern was located at the northwestern corner of the campus, or that a number of “secret societies” existed.
“Mischief … is the constant companion of idleness,” Hawthorne scribed. “I am afraid that my stay here will have an ill effect upon my moral character.”
“Drinking, smoking, and card playing” were three sins Hawthorne rarely avoided, though punishment — if caught — could be harsh.
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“I narrowly escaped detection,” Hawthorne wrote. “I have, in a great measure, discontinued the practice of playing cards,” Nathaniel assured his sister, “and [I] mean … to be more careful.”
In his second year, while Brunswick saw a green-up of spring, catastrophe struck. On Monday, March 4 of 1822, at 3 p.m., the loud cry of “Fire!” was heard. Flames and smoke were found coming from “the garret” at Maine Hall, and the conflagration was already “beyond control.”
“Twelve of the students” lost all of their belongings, clothing, furniture, and bedding to the flames. Hundreds of volumes in the “theological library,” and “the whole of the woodwork” of the building’s interior, were lost “by seven that evening.”
“Except having my coat torn,” Hawthorne wrote, “I sustained no damage by it.”
Hawthorne was a “dandy,” a handsome young man who took great care in his appearance. When, Hawthorne received his first watch in his sophomore year, he proudly remarked that he would “cut a great dash” on campus.
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Hawthorne was provided a stipend from his uncle, yet he often wrote home asking for more funds. “If I remain in Brunswick, I shall spend all my money,” Hawthorne complained to his sister, and “I have no clothes in which to make a decent appearance.”
Yet, leaving campus seemed more of a priority for Hawthorne, and he was not above conspiring to finagle permission to leave. “You must write me a letter” Hawthorne cautioned his eldest sister, “If you do not, I shall certainly forge a letter” or, “I will leave Brunswick without liberty.”
Monotony appears to have been Hawthorne’s constant nemesis. He and fellow classmate Horatio Bridge spent much time walking the woods of Brunswick, and each enjoyed “lingering for hours” by the river watching “giant pine logs … come to the falls … and plunge into the foamy pool below.”
Bridge wrote of “an old woman” that lived in a run-down shack at “the lower end of town.” She “pretended to be a fortune teller,” and “for nine-pence” Bridge and Hawthorne were often “entertained” by her prognostications.
Yet, it was card playing and drinking at “Ward’s Tavern,” or more likely at Moorhead’s Tavern, which was most preferred.
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In May of 1822, a large card game was exposed by college faculty and the result of that discovery left “one student dismissed, two suspended,” and others fined. And this time, Hawthorne did not “escape detection.”
On May 29, College President William Allen fined Nathaniel “50 cents for gaming at cards.” “If I am again detected,” Hawthorne warned his mother, “I shall have the honor of being suspended.”
The only known class (portrait) silhouette of Young Nathaniel Hawthorne at Bowdoin. Courtesy of Bowdoin College archives
Hawthorne was often cited for numerous infractions such as “neglect of themes,” “Excessive walking on the Sabbath Day,” and “absence from recitation.” He may even have been absent from sitting for his own class silhouette (portrait). “Hawthorne disapproved,” explained Horatio Bridge, “he steadily refused to go.”
Yet, despite his trials and tribulations, on Sept. 7 of 1825, Nathaniel Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin and, though he little considered himself to be a memorable student, his time at Brunswick is not forgotten.
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Today, the bookstore Twice-Told Tales, even bears one of Hawthorne’s book-titles and serves to remind us that Nathaniel Hawthorne’s matriculation at Bowdoin, nearly 200 years ago, is one of the best-surviving of our Stories From Maine.
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Norway Savings Bank supports Maine Paws for Veterans in Brunswick
Our Pine Tree State is known for many things, including producing a fair share of well-known celebrities!
Listen, we get it—Maine might not be the first place you think of when it comes to producing celebrities. States like Illinois, California, and New York usually get that spotlight. Instead, we’re known for our delicious seafood, rugged outdoor wear, iconic New England architecture, and stunning natural beauty.
But it’s true: many famous celebrities were born here in Maine and proudly call ‘Vacationland’ home.
While some famous folks may have been born in Maine and later moved elsewhere, considering their new location as home, that’s perfectly fine too. The lines between being a ‘Mainer‘ and someone ‘from away‘ are blurry. Generally speaking, we Mainers are open to embracing anyone with a connection to Maine, no matter how small.
We take pride in our state’s influence and are always happy to welcome those who share a piece of our heritage.
In putting together this list of famous folks and where they were born in Maine, we wanted to think outside the box. For example, everyone knows about Patrick Dempsey, aka ‘Dr. McDreamy’ and People Magazine’s 2023 Sexiest Man Alive. He’s a well-known Mainer, born in Lewiston, so we didn’t include him here.
Patrick Dempsey Attends TAG Heuer Sydney Boutique Re-OpeningGetty Images
Instead, we focused on less obvious choices, making our list of 16 celebrities more intriguing and unique.
That being said, McDreamy could have easily been added to this, and we could have renamed this ‘Check Out Where These 17 Celebrities Were Born in Maine,’ but 16 just has a better ring to it, doesn’t it?
“Ferrari” SAG Awards Screening + Q&A
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Alright, without further ado, which celebrities were born in Maine? And where in our great Pine Tree State exactly? Keep scrolling to find out!
16 Famous People You Probably Didn’t Know Were Born In Maine
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Check Out These 23 Celebrities Who Visited Maine in 2023
Maine is known as ‘Vacationland’ for a reason, right? Check out these 23 celebrities who visited our Pine Tree State in 2023!
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Mainers Advised to NOT Travel to These 9 Places
The United States Department of State regularly issues travel advisories for Americans to help keep them safe during their vacations. There are four levels of advisories: exercise normal precautions, exercise increased caution, reconsider travel and do not travel. These are nine of the 19 destinations under a Level 4: DO NOT TRAVEL advisory.
The Top 10 Drunkest Cities in Maine
There’s no doubt about it, Maine likes to drink, but where in the Pine Tree State do Mainers like to drink the most? RoadSnacks did the math, and we’ve got the top 10 ‘drunkest’ cities in Maine!
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14 Everyday Phrases Used in Maine That Are Historically Racist
You’d have to look long and far to find an example of someone using these as they were originally intended today. As they were first coined to oppress, they’ve become universally accepted as ordinary, everyday greetings and phrases in this modern day.
