Maine Prison head defies Legislature over exile policy

Maine Speaker of the House Snubbed By Corrections Boss

Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnusson has rejected requests by a Maine legislative leader and other legislators for information about the state's punitive exile policy.

Speaker of House Hannah Pingree, Senator Chris Rector and others have been refused by Commissioner Magnusson, when they requested an explanation of his punitive exile policy.

Commissioner Magnusson says his department's exile policies and the identities of exiled Maine prisoners are "confidential"; he will not explain them.

This is a slap in the face to the Maine Legislature," said Ron Huber, radio producer for an exiled inmate Deane Brown of Rockland. "The Department of Corrections is grown arrogant in its power and secrecy. Its time for the Commissioner and this deputies to be brought down a peg or two."

Under the Baldacci Administration, the state has adopted forced relocation as a solution for "troublemaker" inmates. 10s of cases may exist of Mainers spirited off to distant states' prisons, for rocking the boat on poor prison conditions or institutional corruption.