Rev. Stan Moody, Ph.D.

POB 240Manchester, ME 04351207/626-0594Cell: 207/607-3055www.stanmoody.com

Stan Moody is a former Maine State Legislator and was a Chaplain at the MaineState Prison in Warren for approximately 2 years…He has a lifetime experience asa turn-around specialist for troubled businesses, is a writer and speaker on humanrights issues and is pastor of the Meeting House Church in Manchester, ME…

Testimony on LD1611: OUGHT TO PASS

February 17, 2010Sen. Gerzofsky; Rep. Haskell; distinguished members of the Joint StandingCommittee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety…My name is Stan Moody…I served with several of you in the 121

and 122

Sessions of the Maine State Legislature…Most recently, I served for approximately2 years as a Chaplain at Maine State Prison…For many years, I have been a writerand speaker on human rights violations from the West Bank of Palestine to theMaine Criminal Justice system, spending time in each setting…It is with that hatthat I testify today in support of LD1611, An Act to Ensure Humane Treatment forSpecial Management Prisoners…I come before you today with inside knowledge of the Special ManagementUnit at Maine State Prison… As Prison Chaplain, I visited prisoners in “segregation”or “solitary,” whatever politically-correct term suits your fancy, making personalcontact with 60 – 70 prisoners per weekI like the spirit of this bill…Some of its provisions, however, are problematic…I have, therefore, organized my testimony to identify what I believe to be wrongwith this bill, what I believe to be right with this bill and how I believe it can bestrengthened…

What Is Wrong with LD1611

1. With its 45 day confinement limit, LD1611 actually loosens therestrictions on the length of time a prisoner may be confined to a SpecialManagement Unit, otherwise referred to as Segregation or Solitary1

Confinement…A March 2006 revision to Department of Corrections PolicyNo. 20.1, Prisoner Discipline, limits confinement in Segregation for notmore than 30 days without due process… It sets forth that “Disciplinaryaction is not to be capricious or retaliatory in nature; a fair and impartialdisposition shall be made in each case.”It has been my experience that practices within segregation, becausethey are hidden from public scrutiny, are both capricious and retaliatorywith little or no recourse…2.You do not need testimony from a contingent of guards from the prison toknow that Article 4 of the bill is severely flawed...Safety of both guardsand prisoners in general population demands that there be discretionaryauthority on the use of physical restraints with special managementprisoners…Whether or not a special management prisoner ought to be inrestraints during a non-contact visit is questionable, but to outlawrestraints in all situations is to gut security of its enforcementresponsibility…

What is This Unified Opposition All About?

The Department of Corrections wants you to believe that 45 days insegregation is OK because their version of segregation of prisoners for 23 hours aday is “acceptable practice.” I have news for you…As we speak, prisoners arebeing held in segregation at Maine State Prison for far longer than the 30 dayspresently in the Department’s policy because, if the truth be known, SMU is beingemployed as a housing facility for an overcrowded prison…The excuse of mentalillness, in my judgment, has become a self-fulfilling prophecy…What you are witnessing at this hearing here today is 2 ethics that prevail inthe Department of Corrections but go to the root of what is right about LD1611…Both fall under the old adage, “Me thinks you protesteth too much!” The first ethic is the self-righteous defense that the rest of us and thegeneral public do not know what prison officials are up against, popularized in songby, “Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen.” That is the ethic behind the hair-splitting argument over Segregation vs. Solitary Confinement, a red-herring thathas nothing to do with the merits of this bill…To insist that months of 23-hour-a-day segregation in a 7x12 ft cell across a corridor from somebody going crazy fromisolation is anything but “capricious or retaliatory” is an oblique and disingenuouseffort to hide something that maybe the public

ought

to know about…Put simply, if 2

we don’t know the trouble they’ve seen, how can we possibly do anything to help? The answer, of course, is, “We don’t need your help, thank you very much.” The second ethic is that being a team player is the first line of defenseagainst change…What you witness here today is a classic case of circling thewagons – guards, who are left hanging out there taking the rap for maintainingorder and being fired when things go wrong and Corrections administrators whoroutinely hunker down within Mahogany Row…Being a team player can be a goodthing under certain circumstances…When being a team player involves coveringup human rights violations, however, something needs to change…I believeLD1611 is a first step toward that change…What we are witnessing today is a rippling down of what I call the “threemonkey defense” – see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil…I

know what they are up against, and it cries for a change in attitude…Ihave been there…I have heard the plaintive cries of people stripped of all humandignity…I have counseled with prisoners who had lost control, banged their headsbloody, cut themselves, spread feces around their cells, touched off their sprinklersand gone on ill-fated hunger strikes out of boredom – completely out-of-touch withreality…I was recently handed a list of prisoners in segregation and was able totick off 25 who had been there for interminable lengths of time with no recourse… That’s why we need this bill…

What is Right with This Bill?

We have a bill here that

loosens

the time restraints on confinement insegregation, while severely impacting security at the prison…Common sensewould dictate that the Commissioner could sit down with this Committee to ironout the differences, support the bill and call it a day, wouldn’t you think? Instead,we are confronted with an army of opposition that demonstrates disrespect for thiscommittee and the legislative process as the voice of the people…Fear of theprocess is fear of the people, I would suggest…What is feared here, I believe, is that this bill may be a first step towardimbedding transparency and accountability into law...This bill anticipates changeon the horizon…In my opinion, prison reform will be the next major civil rightsmovement in this nation…Change is coming, whether we like it or not, and it is3