During work sessions this week, lawmakers on the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee will discuss an array of bills, including one to ban solitary confinement and another to expand Good Samaritan Law protections.
Matt Byrne
Matt Byrne has covered crime and public safety for the Press Herald since 2016. It is his second beat since being hired at the Press Herald in late 2012, when he left the Boston Globe's suburban news bureau. Matt grew up outside Philadelphia, moved to Boston to attend Emerson College and now loves living in Maine. When he is not nerding out on court documents or listening to a police scanner, Matt loves to work on old cars, make things out of metal and try new craft beers. Offers to drive your race car, or news tips, are always welcome.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Politics
Advocates urge lawmakers to pass expanded ‘Good Samaritan’ law aimed at curbing drug deaths
Dozens of Mainers die from drug overdoses because people around them are afraid of arrest, bill supporters say, but police say it could provide blanket immunity from arrest for unrelated crimes.
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Posted inLocal & State, News
COVID outbreak persists at Cumberland County Jail, with more than 50 cases and 1 inmate hospitalized
Forty-nine inmates had active infections as of Thursday, while four corrections officers were isolating at home after testing positive and three others were symptomatic and out of work.
Posted inBusiness, Health, Local & State, Maine Crime, News
Four Portland home health agency managers charged with wage-fixing, anti-competition scheme
The indictment unsealed this week alleges that they conspired in a secret agreement to keep worker wages low and eliminate competition.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Newspapers go to court to reveal state police misconduct records
A judge will soon decide whether the Maine State Police must turn over more disciplinary records and unmask redacted information in a freedom of access lawsuit.
Posted inLocal & State, News
The 10 shootings examined by Maine’s Deadly Force Review Panel
The shootings occurred in the period from July 2017 to April 2020.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Review of police shootings focuses on need for more preventive mental health services
People who are shot by police are often in mental health crisis and armed, the Deadly Force Review Panel said. There are chances long before shootings to head off tragedy with help.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Conditions for youth at Long Creek have improved, corrections commissioner tells lawmakers
Commissioner Randall Liberty said his agency is pushing to hire more staff and prevent more eruptions of violence at the state’s juvenile lockup.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Corrections chief to tell lawmakers about state’s response to report critical of Long Creek
Commissioner Randall Liberty says some of the changes suggested in the report already have been adopted at Maine’s only youth prison.
Posted inLocal & State, Maine Crime, News
Police find Lubec woman dead in trunk, charge boyfriend with murder
Paul DeForest, 65, was arrested in Warrenton, Virginia, and is charged with killing his girlfriend, Eva Cox, 58.