Solitary confinement

The Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on Wednesday on a bill that would alter the state Department of Corrections protocol for “special management prisoners.” Special management prisoners are those assigned to one of several high-risk categories and confined in a secure special management unit, according to the bill.

The measure, sponsored by state Rep. James Schatz, D-Blue Hill, is supported by the Maine Civil Liberties Union. The MCLU brought former prisoner Robert King up to the State House last week to speak with lawmakers about his experience. He was imprisoned in solitary confinement for 29 years in Louisiana before a court found him “probably innocent,” and he was released.

Time off

State government offices will be closed Monday for Presidents’ Day and the following day, Tuesday, for a budget-mandated shut-down day. Lawmakers will also be taking Monday and Tuesday off.

Voluntary tax?

Have you found yourself with a little too much money? How about donating it to the general fund to help close the state’s more than $400 million budget gap?

State Rep. Terry Hayes, D-Buckfield, has sponsored a bill that would allow Mainers to pay a voluntary sales tax to help defray cuts in state spending that would other otherwise have to be made.

Hayes has said on the House floor that she and her husband had been going over their finances and determined they had a little bit of money to spare, and Hayes thought it would be a good idea to give Mainers the chance to give a little more to state coffers.

Massachusetts has a similar program, though it isn’t widely taken advantage of. No word yet on how much increased revenue the voluntary tax might yield.

Rescheduled

Legislation that would enable landlords to be informed by utilities companies when services such as electricity are to be shut off, which was scheduled for a work session last week, is expected to be taken up on Thursday afternoon in the Utilities and Energy Committee.

State Rep. Herb Adams, D-Portland, who sponsored one of the measures, told the committee that a group of stakeholders has been working together and should be able to come to an agreement this week.

The proposals came about after a deadly incident this past summer when a fire broke out in Lewiston’s Little Canada because of candles being used in an apartment where the electricity had been shut off. Nine-year-old Taylor McQeeney perished in the incident.

 
— Rebekah Metzler

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