Weekend Roundtable - Maine state prison warden, officials under self-investigation

Today's 30 minute podcast reviews an recent article by Kim Lincoln of Village Soup's Rockland Herald Gazette on the interim results of an investigation by OPEGA, Maine's Office of Program Evaluation & Government Accountability, into the wrongdoings of Maine state prison officials, including Warden Jeffery Merrill and assistant corrections commissioner Denise Lord. Interlaced with a few choice excerpts of Jimi Hendrix music Regrettably, the Legislature voted a few days ago to terminate the OPEGA investigation and leave it up to Maine Department of Corrections to investigate themselves. In their words: "...allow the Department of Corrections to address these questions in continuing the cultural change work it has initiated in a more deliberate, coordinated and accelerated fashion. OPEGA, the Government Oversite Committee and/or the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee would receive periodic updates from the Department on the status of its cultural change efforts and the results achieved. In this way, the Department would be held accountable to pursue necessary change." Uh huh. 'held accountable'? Magnusson, Merill and Lord must have laughed all the way back to their prison fastness. See recent meeting minutes about the maine state prison review at http://www.maine.gov/legis/opega/GOC/GOC_meetings/Current_handouts/5-22-09/Meeting%20Summary-Tab%201.pdf