SCARBOROUGH (AP) – A former Maine prison inmate who once described himself as a “ticking time bomb” says freedom is more stressful than life behind bars.

Norman Dickinson, 37, has been incarcerated most of his life since he was 12 and is now out on probation for the fifth time on kidnapping, robbery and criminal threatening convictions from 16 years ago.

But he is finding it difficult to find a place to live and adjust to a society in which he has never functioned. The four previous times he was placed on probation – in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001 – he was free for between one day and almost two months before violating his probation and being sent back to prison.

Every time Dickinson tastes freedom, his presence in the outside world has sparked public fear and community protests.

Dickinson said he is as wary about society as it is about him. And he said it’s hard to adjust to a world that is far more complex than life behind bars. He has never before held a job, worn a wristwatch or carried a wallet.

“In prison, everything is pretty much given to you,” Dickinson told the Portland Press Herald. “Out here, you got to work, you’ve got to make money, and I’m just not used to that…I’d be lying if I said there aren’t times when I felt like saying (forget) this and just go out and get a violation and go back to prison. It’s the only thing I know.”

Last week, Dickinson marked two months out on probation, the longest he’s been free since his 1989 conviction for robbing three women in separate incidents on the same night in the Maine Mall area.

Each time he has been released in past years, he has broken the rules and been sent back to prison. He ran away from a court-ordered group home, exposed himself to a TV crew and cursed a judge, and pounded his head on a wooden table. He wrote letters to Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson saying he was fixated on her, and threw a TV set at a staff member at a Bangor prerelease center.

This time, Dickinson is receiving an unprecedented level of support. He has daily contact with a mental health worker from the Department of Health and Human Services, and the agency pays for his food and rent.

He has daily contact with a probation officer, and his movements are monitored with an electronic ankle bracelet. He is also in constant contact with his attorney, Neale Duffett.

For weeks now, Duffett and the other team members have been working to find a stable home for Dickinson. They have found opposition from potential neighbors in Portland, Scarborough and Raymond.

The worst moment came on a night of a neighborhood meeting in Scarborough, near the cottage where he stayed until recently. People outside his cottage were pounding on his windows, trying to make him come out, he said. He called Duffett, who brought him to his own house in Portland for the night.

But Dickinson is as afraid of his neighbors as they are of him, Duffett said. He now lives in a Portland motel room because he can’t find an apartment.

“He views society as a hostile place,” Duffett said. “He’s afraid to go out after dark. He double-locks his doors. He’s afraid of crowds. He doesn’t trust many people. We are trying to show him that the society we live in is a benign place, that people are generally good and are willing to give people a chance. But it’s not easy.”