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Press Release on Maine Solitary Confinement Bill
Press Release
February 17, 2010
Re: LD 1611: A Bill to Ensure Humane Treatment for Special Management Prisoners
Stan Moody, Former Maine State Representative and former Chaplain at Maine State Prison, testified before the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety on LD 1611, a bill to limit incarceration in segregation at Maine State Prison to 45 days…
Moody leveled a blistering attack on the ethic within the prison, saying that policy could not be captured in a manual; policy was what happened in practice…Practice, according to Moody, resulted in the death of Prisoner Sheldon Weinstein, who died alone in segregation of a ruptured spleen four days after an attack in his housing unit…
According to Moody, the universal response to Weinstein’s death was “good riddance; one less mouth to feed.” Weinstein was a confessed sex offender…Sex offenders, as well as “rats,” according to Moody, are routinely singled out for assault and abuse… “We all of us, including convicted felons, deserve to be treated with dignity and respect in the spirit of, ‘There but for the grace of God, go I.’”
Moody cites LD1611, with its requirement for Department of Conservation hearings and video records of cell extractions, as a “…first step toward imbedding transparency and accountability into law.” “Change is coming,” he said, “whether we like it or not, and it is time for you as legislators to begin making the transition.”
To view and download my entire TESTIMONY, please visit my profile on www.Scribd.com/StanMoody
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