AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) Maine should rewrite some of its laws relating to the state corrections department so that the language is not demeaning to people in its system, who are regularly referred to in statutes as “prisoner, inmate or convict,” according to a report that’s under review by a lawmaking committee.
The push to rewrite the laws has wide support in the state, including from Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and lawmakers like Rep. Bill Pluecker, the Sun Journal reported Tuesday.
Last year, Pluecker, a Warren independent, sponsored the bill that created the group to identify and replace stigmatizing language in the state’s statutes. He supports the laws being changed with the new language recommended by the report.
The state’s corrections commissioner, Randall Liberty, said the corrections community in Maine has already begun using person-centered language to de-stigmatizing incarceration.
Under Liberty, the department established a campaign called Language Matters, which is an initiative to implement the use of person-centered language, the newspaper said.
