Maine prisoners launch hunger strike

Here's the address for Shane in case anyone wants to write him:

Shane Michaud # 72847
807 Cushing Road, 
Warren, Maine 04864-4600

From the homepage of the Department of Corrections' website under Family and Friends, you can deposit funds for commissary. 

You need the inmate's MDOC # and date of birth. Shane's info is 

MDOC #72847 and D.O.B. 9-24-88.

There are certain rules to follow if you write, like no colored paper. Only blue or black ink, etc... click here for the rules first.  

The rules for visiting are there too. Shane calls me about once a week. He gets a free 5 minute phone call. Why they don't allow prisoners more phone time is... well it's criminal! Hearing from family and friends is important to rehabilitation and to prisoners' morale.

I just found out that some of the inmates began protesting conditions there in Warren on Thursday! By Evan Popp, Maine State Prison residents launch hunger strike over conditions they call solitary confinement. 

Shane has stated at times he's only allowed out for a very short time each day, due to staff shortages apparently. 

Randall Liberty is the Commissioner at the state prison, and fairly new at that job; however, was previously the warden there. Liberty was a guest on the Maine podcast "Let's Talk About It".  

I might write to him. Criminal defendants who are facing jail time, and those who are already incarcerated while waiting for their "speedy trial" have a constitutional right to have counsel, effective counsel, appointed to them...and Maine is being sued for failing to provide it.

And according to a Portland Press Herald story: ‘It’s incredibly stressful:’ Aroostook defendants say weeks spent without attorneys makes defense impossible. Yeah there are even fewer lawyers there. Maybe that's because in 2008 and 2010 the Maine Supreme Court crushed Husson College in Bangor's hope of educating students to become lawyers. 

It all boils down to the American Bar Association's strict position/policy, whatever: they want professors to be tenured. And Husson stopped giving lifetime appointments to professors long ago. 

Attorney General Aaron Frey said he wasn't familiar with the Maine Supreme Court rulings, when I mentioned it during an interview Jennifer Rooks conducted with him on Maine Calling last Thursday. I was the last caller to speak. 

It will be of little avail to the poeple that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. 

                                                      ~James Madison

Portland Press Herald: ‘It’s incredibly stressful:’ Aroostook defendants say weeks spent without attorneys makes defense impossible