This March, when we heard the Waldo County Budget Committee discussing cuts to the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center and its programs, we asked our supporters across Waldo County to speak up for restorative reentry. And you showed up!
We were floored by the outpouring of community support for the Reentry Center and Restorative Justice at a sleepy Friday evening budget hearing.
“I’m speaking as a Liberty resident and longtime first responder: over 30 years in fire, EMS, and emergency management… As we all know, drug and alcohol addiction is one of the primary paths to encounters with law enforcement and into incarceration. It’s not really a 911 problem; it’s a societal problem. And when we have an approach in Waldo County that seeks to address those root causes of drug and alcohol addiction, for long-term solutions to really reduce incarceration, that’s money well spent. I’m a volunteer through Restorative Justice in one of their support groups, and I can attest to the healing impact those services have on people.”
— Elise Brown
“My story is I spent 25 years in prison, and I went to the Reentry Center, and I’m crediting the Reentry Center and the Restorative Justice and all the people that work there for saving my life and allowing me to be a productive citizen in the United States.”
— Douglass Clifford
“When I left the Sheriff’s Office as Sheriff in 2015, I swore I’d never come back to another Budget Committee [laughter]… A quick story of Doug Clifford: Doug Clifford shows up in my office, medium- to high-risk offender, spends most of his adult life in the Maine State Prison, and I didn’t want him. Jerome, who worked for Volunteers of America at the time, convinced me that if we were going to do this program right, we couldn’t cherry pick who we bring through. We needed some of the ‘worst of the worst,’ and Doug will tell you he was one of the ‘worst of the worst’ in our prison system.
“Doug, I’m so proud of him. Because he is—from the day he got out—he’s been working with other inmates, other people in the Reentry Center, doing exactly what that thing was designed to do.”
— Scott Story
“I am a Waldo County homeowner, a person in long-term recovery, a certified peer recovery coach, and an intentional peer support specialist in the state of Maine. Over the last four years, I have seen firsthand why reentry support works in our community… When these services are not available to the reentry population, recidivism rises. And the costs do not disappear; they shift to our medical professionals in the emergency room, to our dedicated protectors in law enforcement and our judicial court system, straining our already limited resources in our rural communities.
“Supporting reentry in this budget is how our community heals and rebuilds from the drug epidemic which for many of us felt like a strategically directed assault on our families and communities. The effects are still showing up in our jails and emergency systems, and reentry support is one of the ways we reduce that strain. Protecting reentry services is not new; spending it is smart investment that reduces pressure on the jail budget and protects public safety.”
— Molly Riddle
“In the year 2000 I was branded a career criminal, and I was deemed hopeless to society… I was doing what they call ‘life on the installment plan.’ I would get out for no more than six months and reoffend. And that cycle went on. I started when I was about sixteen years old and went on to about the age of thirty-five…
“In the year 2010 I arrived at the Reentry Center. I was scared—excuse my French—I was scared s***less to get back on the streets… I had learned how to do time. I did time very well. What I found at the Reentry Center was something totally different, something unique, that is not served anywhere else, at least not in this state. I’m here as someone who has directly benefitted from the Maine Reentry Center. What the Reentry Center taught me, and through Restorative Justice, was accountability.”
— Robert Porter
“I’m a family doctor here for the last forty-four years. For ten years I was Director of the addiction program here. I am on the Board of Visitors of the Waldo County jail. And I’m on the Board for Restorative Justice. That said, my main plea is that programs at the Reentry Center be conserved. I’ve seen so many people’s lives be changed, lives be saved, and people be profoundly changed. I’ve seen them firsthand, and it wouldn’t happen without that program.”
— Tim Hughes
“I work for Restorative Justice Project Maine. I am a former resident of the Reentry Center, and now I live here in Belfast as a Belfast taxpayer… The Reentry Center was pivotal in changing my life. I’ve been in and out of jail, youth center, prison, jail, since I was twelve years old. I really got an opportunity to make a serious change at the Reentry Center. That’s not really offered anywhere else in this state: we have work releases and that sort of thing, but nothing that really focuses on the root causes. The Reentry Center did that for me.
“The Sheriff needs his money for essential services, EMS, things like that. And in my opinion, the Reentry Center is also an essential service.“
— Norman Hightower
While our Reentry Center in Belfast may be small, it serves as an example to the state and beyond. At this Friday municipal meeting, we saw our community embody what it is to think global and act local.