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A Decade after 9/11

Letters

Letters to the Portland editor, July 25, 2008

Time to end torture
The Black Bird Legal Collective would like to thank Lance Tapley for his continued exposure of Maine prison issues (see "Torture for the Hostage-Taker?" by Lance Tapley, July 11). Any illegal retaliatory act against Michael Chasse can serve only to highlight the extreme hypocrisy of the criminal justice system in this country. Our courts and prisons are predicated on legality; any illegal act perpetrated by agents of that system will continue to undermine its credibility.

In reference to associate corrections commissioner Denise Lord’s statement that “people aren’t kept for indefinite periods of time [in the Supermax],” it depends on how you define indefinite. Michael Chasse spent eight years in the Supermax. This is not uncommon. Prisoners in Maine and the US often spend years, and sometimes decades, in these isolation torture chambers.

In working to hold prison officials accountable, and to end torture in prisons and detention facilities the Black Bird Legal Collective is not alone. We are apart of a national campaign, spear headed by the American Friends Service Committee called STOPMAX. The goal of STOPMAX is to abolish the use of isolation and other forms of torture in US prisons, all of which are common in Supermaxes across the nation.

To get involved with Black Birde-mailblackbirdcollective@gmail.com orcall 207.766.8091.

Paul McCarrier
Jordan Fischer
Black Bird Legal Collective
Portland