Our Governor assumed full control of our state economy in the face of the coronavirus. The Governor’s stated purpose was to prevent the virus from spiraling out of control and overwhelming our hospitals and critical care facilities. We needed time to obtain the necessary protective equipment for our first responders. We needed to obtain enough critical hospital equipment, like ventilators, to care for our fellow Mainers. The Mills plan ordered people to quarantine at home and for all businesses to close. Our state economy was virtually stopped. We have all done as the Governor asked. Over 100,000 Maine people were placed on the rolls of the unemployed, while every business not deemed essential by the Governor was closed. We waited weeks while scientists and…
Author: Richard Pickett
Rep. Richard Pickett is in his third term in the Maine House of Representative serving the people of House District 116 – Canton, Dixfield, Hartford, Mexico and Peru. He serves on the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety. Rep. Pickett has served nearly four decades in law enforcement. That includes 7 years as a Maine State Police Trooper, 15 years as a Maine State Police Detective and service as the Chief of Police in the Town of Dixfield.
On May 15, Governor Mills issued an executive order delegating authority to the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections to prohibit the transfer of any or all inmates from any county or municipal detention facility to a state facility. The timing of this order is both interesting and disturbing. As of the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, all our county sheriffs have voluntarily held prisoners in their county facilities to help protect against the spread of the virus. The Governor cites the need to “temporality stop the intake of inmates by the Department of Corrections from counties.” Since no intakes have taken place for three months, why the new order? She also cites that county…