Imagine a state where those who cannot afford to retain a private attorney, if they or a loved one have an encounter with the criminal justice system, must rely on a “lawyer of the day” program, because their state does not offer constitutionally compliant formal public defense services.

Imagine further a state where over 80% of the population are forced to rely on this type of substandard legal representation and where 6.3% of those arrested and 12% of those incarcerated are Black, while Black people comprise 1.59% of the state’s population.

Low-income people from all around the state and people from poor and rural parts of this state are likewise deprived of their Sixth Amendment right to counsel and made to rely on ill-prepared, outspent and overburdened “lawyer of the day” representation. Over 90%, take a plea bargain, oftentimes in the face of actual innocence, because the “gig” lawyers assigned to represent them are overburdened with other low-income cases or can’t afford to spend time trying their cases and neglecting their private law practices.

If this is all not bad enough, consider that the state’s courts have exonerated one wrongful felony conviction since the state was founded over 200 years ago. There is no parole system in this state, so prisoners who serve their time and rehabilitate themselves have no way of returning home on post-release supervision and must spend decades, even life, behind bars when they could easily be law-abiding contributors to society.

This same state likewise has no conviction expungement programs so that, once released, formerly incarcerated people lose their ability to obtain employment and housing, causing them to return to prison in large percentages. Reentry services are also bare.

This all costs the state’s taxpayers over $200 million per year and does not deter crime; even worse, it destroys lives while weakening families and communities. Worst of all, it harms the other victims of crime: the children of incarcerated parents, who all too often become justice-involved themselves.

So, this is Mississippi, right? Texas? Louisiana?

No, it’s Maine.

Sadly, Maine has designed a criminal justice system that churns the same people back into its prisons, year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation, at the expense of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that would be better spent addressing issues like education, affordable housing, addiction, homelessness and other needs.

The Maine ACLU reported that from November 2023 to May 2004, the number of defendants in Maine who have been denied their right to an attorney has increased by nearly 500% and that the number of low-income people who are lingering in jail without representation has “skyrocketed.”

In 2016, our neighbor Vermont launched its Risk Intervention Services model to rehabilitate those recently released from incarceration. Participation in these services reduced recidivism by 19%, meaning that many more people can successfully rejoin their families and participate in the economy and that many fewer people are being imprisoned at the taxpayer’s expense. Vermont is proof that, when done right, parole is more humane, more effective at reducing crime and less expensive than prolonged incarceration.

Last year, L.D. 178, “An Act to Support Reentry and Reintegration into the Community,” was introduced to our legislature but ultimately did not pass. It’s time for Mainers to conform our criminal justice policies and practices with our perceptions of ourselves as independent, fair-minded, freedom-loving people. We need to start by contacting our state legislators and urging them to reintroduce and pass L.D. 178 to reinstitute parole in Maine.