FARMINGTON — Nationally known trial attorney F. Lee Bailey advocated work-release programs for convicted felons to help reduce recidivism in a speech at the local Rotary Club on Thursday.

Bailey, a former U.S. Marines Corps Sabre jet pilot who is best known for his high-profile legal cases, focused on the importance of Maine and other states implementing such programs.

Bailey was the lawyer who cross-examined detective Mark Fuhrman in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. He helped Dr. Sam Sheppard win exoneration, and also successfully defended U.S. Army Capt. Ernest Medina, who was being court-martialed for the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.

His ties to Maine include trips to the state during childhood as well as serving as a marketing and project development director for Oxford Aviation, which he said is currently looking for a new home at the closing Naval Air Station in Brunswick.

The packed house, including probation officials, Janet Mills, Maine attorney general, and John Nale, chairman of the Maine State
Prison Advisory Council, heard Bailey tout an “amicas” or friend-of-the-court system for Maine that is similar to one developed in Minnesota 30 years ago. That state has reduced its rate of repeating felons from 75 percent to 25 percent.

The program paroles inmates to the custody of businesspeople, who are motivated to see that the inmate does not fail or reoffend. Other employees in the business are also urged to help make sure the employee succeeds, Bailey said.

“Some people should never be let out because they will do the same things and come back,” Bailey said. “One third of the prison population may be good candidates for rehabilitation but the system encourages them to fail. In prison, they only are allowed to associate with other felons and are not equipped to deal with society when released. Getting a job for many takes a bit of luck, and they probably won’t keep it.”

The system of getting an early release for a felon on the condition a business gives them a job helps ensure that they don’t stumble. Minnesota’s system showed it was working after only two years in use, Bailey said.

Reducing the rate of reoffending felons is estimated to save the state $65,000 per successful inmate returned to society per year, so the cost of overseeing the program was never found to be an obstacle, Bailey said.

An essential tool in the program is the polygraph, or lie detector test, he said.

“The polygraph is a devastating test when conducted by a good examiner. A 50-year member of the American Polygraph Association, I don’t know how to beat it,” Bailey said.

Bailey recalled Major Parker Hennessey in Maine, who encouraged a 36-year prison inmate challenging his murder conviction to write a letter to the governor explaining why he should be set free, and tested him based on that same letter.

“Even after 36 years, unless he’s forgotten he did it, it should work,” Bailey said. Sure enough, the inmate failed the polygraph test and lost his appeal.

Businesses having a stake in a former inmate succeeding really works, he stressed.

Oxford Aviation hired a felon for six months who was successful. Bailey acknowledged it can take time to get such a system going and businesses don’t become experts in rehabilitation overnight. “But there is no magic or mystery to any of this,” he said.

The key is support of businesses at the local level with inmates properly informed and prepared to participate while still in the prison system.

“The inmates police it from the inside because everyone who fails and comes back hurts them all, and they know it,” Bailey said.

“It is clear simply cycling people in and out of prison does not work. Unfortunately, statistically, minorities fail more often. There is a small minority population in prison in the state of Maine, which is another reason the state is a good candidate for such a work-release program,”
Bailey said.

He also said female inmates are probably better candidates for rehabilitation.

The financial benefit for businesses includes a $2,400 federal tax credit and bonding, he said.

There is no reason the state couldn’t also offer incentives, given the proven savings such programs have shown, he said.

Bailey said the participants in a program have to be carefully selected and a former inmate should be part of the system “because they can spot a con man who talks a good game.”

To qualify for a work-release program, inmates would first have to honestly admit they committed the crimes they are serving time for and face up to the fact they are convicts, he said.

In response to a question about harsh sentencing, Bailey said, “You won’t find many people in Warren who stole a loaf of bread to feed their family. They embezzled money from their employer or stuck a pistol in someone’s face, and are drug addicts.”

In response to a question about prosecuting marijuana violations, Bailey said it is a waste of resources and amounts to Prohibition, which was unsuccessful.

“In Massachusetts, marijuana is a $100 fine. Marijuana users don’t commit the serious crimes,” he said. “They are more likely to curl up in a corner or try to find a girlfriend. That is not to say some people who seek to hide from life don’t go on to cocaine and heroin.”

Marijuana prosecution in California is “a joke,” he said, with “everyone with a letter of recommendation from their doctor — who often is not licensed — for medical marijuana.”

Bailey was asked what court cases were the most challenging or satisfying to him personally, and he responded, “Sam Shepherd, because I was told: ‘You can’t possibly win this case,’ and exonerating Captain Medina.”

F. Lee Bailey spoke to members of the Farmington Rotary Club Thursday morning.