Healthy Options 2/03/10

Producer/Host: Andree Bella

Studio Engineer: Joel Mann

Topic: LEAP on Legalization and Regulation of Drugs

Why are so many law enforcement professionals  in favor of legalization of illicit drugs?  How would legalization of drugs effect drug dealers and the black market?  What can people to to support the LEAP movement?
Guest: Peter Christ, co-founder of LEAP  FMI: www.leap.org

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RadioActive 1/28/10

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Topic: LD 1611: “An Act To Ensure Humane Treatment for Special Management Prisoners”

State Representative Jim Schatz (D-Blue Hill) has introduced legislation that is aimed at reducing abuses of solitary confinement in Maine’s prisons.  Today we take a closer look at the legislation, the reasons it was proposed, and why it has drawn widespread support from a growing, diverse coalition of groups & individuals in the state.
LD 1611 “An Act To Ensure Humane Treatment for Special Management Prisoners”, would, if passed, do several things to reduce abuses on the SMU’s in Maine’s prisons.   It would protect severely mentally ill prisoners from being placed there, require the discharge of those who develop major mental illnesses while in solitary, restrict the use of restraints, chemical agents and other corporal punishment, require a system of reviews— and a need for justification for long-term placement on the SMU, and prevent prison officials from transferring prisoners out of state if they were to be placed in prisons that still allow such abuses.
Guests:
Emily Posner, Mainers Against the Abuse of Solitary Confinement, www.maineprisonproject.org
Reverend Stan Moody, former state legislator, former chaplain at the Special Management Unit, or SMU at Maine State Prison. He’s the  author of “Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship” and “McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry”, and author of several articles about his experiences there, that have been published in Village Soup.  He currently serves as pastor at the Meeting House Church in Manchester.  FMI: www.stanmoody.com & www.villagesoup.com
Alysia Melnick, Maine Civil Liberties Union FMI: www.mclu.org
Sheila Comerford, Executive Director, Maine Psychological Association
Link to text of LD 1611:
www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280035042

As we’ve reported previously on RadioActive,  State Representative Jim Schatz (D-Blue Hill) has introduced legislation that is aimed at reducing abuses of solitary confinement in Maine’s prisons.  Today we take a closer look at the legislation, the reasons it was proposed, and why it has drawn widespread support from a growing, diverse coalition of groups & individuals in the state.
Prisoners on the Special Management Units, or SMU, spend 23-24 hours per day in solitary confinement.  LD 1611 “An Act To Ensure Humane Treatment for Special Management Prisoners”, would, if passed, do several things to reduce abuses on the SMU’s in Maine’s prisons.   It would protect severely mentally ill prisoners from being placed there, require the discharge of those who develop major mental illnesses while in solitary, restrict the use of restraints, chemical agents and other corporal punishment, require a system of reviews— and a need for justification for long-term placement on the SMU, and prevent prison officials from transferring prisoners out of state if they were to be placed in prisons that still allow such abuses.

Guests: Emily Posner, Mainers Against the Abuse of Solitary Confinement, www.maineprisonproject.org
Reverend Stan Moody, former state legislator, former chaplain at the Special Management Unit, or SMU at Maine State Prison. He’s the  author of “Crisis in Evangelical Scholarship” and “McChurched: 300 Million Served and Still Hungry”, and author of several articles about his experiences there, that have been published in Village Soup.  He currently serves as pastor at the Meeting House Church in Manchester.  FMI: www.stanmoody.com & www.villagesoup.com
Alysia Melnick, Maine Civil Liberties Union FMI: www.mclu.org
Sheila Comerford, Executive Director, Maine Psychological Association
Link to text of LD 1611:www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280035042

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 1/28/10

Producer/Host:  Jim Campbell

“The State of the News Media 2009” is a sobering report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. We’ll take a look at some of the trends the report observes. and on the impact that the decline of traditional news media is having on our lives, our culture, and, perhaps, on our way of governing ourselves. The full report is available at www.journalism.org.  Take a look for yourself.

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