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| Maine Public Felon List Stirs Debate |
| By mpbn.net - Jay Field |
| Published: 01/12/2012 |
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A public online database of the nearly 10,000 adults in Maine in prison or on probation is stirring debate in law enforcement and criminal justice circles. The new search engine went live this week on the Web site of Maine Department of Corrections. Officials at the department say the system, which exists in various forms in other states, will assist police with ongoing investigations and allow victims to keep track of the people who harmed them. But advocates for prisoners, and even some law enforcement officials, worry the existence of the database will make it harder for some offenders to successfully re-enter society, after doing their time. Two clicks off the Department of Corrections Web site and you're there. The search module asks for the inmate or parolee's name, age, gender, height, weight, race, hair and eye color. Drop-down menus let you choose whether they're still incarcerated, if not what region they're living in, what crime they committed and whether they have moles, scars, track marks, tattoos and other physical characteristics or deformities. A successful search generates a detailed profile, accompanied, in most cases, by a mugshot or official prison photo. "As long as it's utilized for the right purposes, I see it as a very valuable tool," says Scott Story, the sheriff in Waldo County. Protecting the public by enforcing the laws and investigating allegations of wrongdoing is his top priority. "You know, if we're conducting investigations and any of the individuals in this database would be a suspect, for instance, we'd have the most up-to-date location of some of these individuals--where they're supposed to be, anyway." But there's another side to Scott Story. More than some sheriffs, Story has become heavily invested in making sure that once people leave prison they don't come back. In recent years, he's run a prisoner re-entry program in Waldo County that's become a model---not just here in Maine, but nationally. The program gives transitioning inmates the chance to work, take responsibility for their lives and prove they've changed as their release date approaches. "These folks coming out of the re-entry have plenty of challenges," he says. "Successfully reintegrating them back into the public means that the public needs to be there for support, in some instances, and for a little bit of--how would I put this I guess--acceptance." Story worries that giving the public unlimited access to even a general sketch of individuals' criminal histories and whereabouts could make this kind of public acceptance harder to come by. Those behind the new database say they understand. Read More. |
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