* Criminal law reform

Decarceration: we should dramatically change our approach to criminal law (or criminal justice, if you prefer). Restraint through incarceration should be reserved for only the most dangerous individuals in society, and punishment for its own sake (or for the thinly veiled goal of retribution) should be abandoned as a guiding principle of criminal law. The goals of rehabilitation and reintegration into society for offenders should be taken more seriously and funded, and the principles of restorative justice merit consideration in criminal procedure. Sentences for most non-violent offenses should be dramatically reduced. If we alleviate poverty and financial vulnerability and invest in mental health and substance abuse services, then we will reduce the occurrence of criminal conduct in the first place. We must ensure that every defendant gets due process of law, which means, among other things, keeping junk science out of the courtroom and enforcing the right to a speedy trial (which is a hollow right in Maine). We must protect the presumption of innocence with vastly increased restrictions on judges’ use of cash bail, which currently draws an invidious distinction among defendants based on wealth, hampers defendants’ ability to prepare for trial, and places unconvicted defendants in the same state of incarceration that they would have imposed if convicted and sentenced.

Concrete proposals: the repeal of nearly every mandatory minimum jail or prison sentence; decriminalization of more substances that are categorized as illegal drugs and the repeal of all felony-level varieties of simple drug possession; reform of the habitual offender driving statutes; elimination of the provision for automatic third-strike felony theft; prohibition on testimony by “drug recognition experts” who are not properly qualified; a complete ban on the use of “drug-recognition” dogs by law enforcement officers; enactment of a reasonable, understandable definition of “intoxication” within the OUI statute; removal of the definition of “drug trafficking” that consists of possession of an illegal drug with the perceived intent to traffic in it; the removal of many types of offense from the list that currently can be the basis for a warrantless arrest; extensive cash bail reform; abolition of the law enforcement “fusion center”; a detailed statute that protects the constitutional right to a speedy trial right; full marijuana decriminalization; and an expansion of the ability to seal or expunge old convictions.

* Maine Public Bank

North Dakota is currently the only state in the union with a public (state-owned) bank, although New Jersey is exploring something similar. There is a trove of useful information here: https://publicbankinginstitute.org/public-banks-101/ . The essence of a state bank would be an institution owned and controlled by the people of Maine, operated for socially beneficial purposes instead of the narrow financial interests of commercial banks’ stock owners. It would hold the state government’s revenues as deposits and issue loans. It also could offer banking services for Maine’s township, town, city, and county governments.

* Climate Change and the Environment

The climate crisis is a problem that demands solutions on national and international scales, and federal law tends to dominate the environmental protection arena. Still, Maine’s government can support renewable energy sources and organic agriculture and take a more active role in local and regional waste disposal processes. A public bank can finance state-owned solar-energy farms, for example. And we must continue to push back against mining companies’ attempts to exploit our natural resources and leave toxic legacies.

* Affordable Housing

The shortage of affordable housing in this state is a crisis, a daily problem for the thousands of homeless individuals in Maine and for the untold number of Mainers without stable residences. It’s also a constant problem for the huge number of Mainers who have to pay outrageous proportions of their wages or salaries on housing, the victims of domestic abuse or violence who lack the financial means to leave abusive situations, and renters who are exploited by predatory landlords. There is no single or simple solution to this crisis. Among my proposals: major public investment in the construction of state-owned rental buildings and the conversion of unused commercial properties (such as brick-and-mortal retail locations) into affordable rental housing; the aggressive use of eminent domain to purchase vacant real estate held by banks (usually after foreclosures); tight restrictions on the conversion of apartment buildings to Airbnb-type, short-term rental use; and mortgage loans at lower interest rates by Maine’s public bank.

* Labor

The state Department of Labor (MDOL) needs increased funding so that it can investigate companies’ violations of state labor laws, such as laws governing minimum wage, overtime pay, workplace safety, and injured workers’ compensation. MDOL needs improved resources to hold unethical employers accountable for wage theft and to deal with companies that use fictitious “independent contractor” status as a means to evade taxes and insurance requirements, pay substandard wages, and ignore workplace safety concerns. Maine’s agricultural workers should no longer be treated the way that agricultural companies are allowed to treat them: they should be given mandatory workers’ compensation coverage, fair remuneration for their hard work, and protection against retaliatory employment actions.

* The Cost of Living Crisis

The shortage of affordable housing is not the only economic problem currently squeezing most Mainers: the costs of food and beverages, basic household necessities, health care, and fuels for heat and transportation (like heating oil and gasoline) have risen to unreasonably high levels. The number one driver of the historically high price hikes of recent years is not a mystery: large corporations, including many with multinational operations, are seeing how high they can raise wholesale and retail prices for their goods. We’re not completely helpless. The state government can expand its price-gouging law and take action to enforce it, it can impose windfall-profit taxes on the large corporations and LLCs that are ripping us off, and it can investigate possible collusion by dominant market participants.

* Indigenous Peoples

It is an embarrassment that the great State of Maine has treated indigenous peoples so poorly for so long. The Maine Legislature must find a way to overcome this conservative governor’s vetoes of bills seeking greater sovereignty for the indigenous communities. Of course, we don’t have a time machine, but we can seek some measure of justice in our own time.