Maine Positive Reentry Program Initiative (2017)

Maine Positive Reentry Program Initiative
Election date November 7, 2017
Topic Law enforcement
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens

The Maine Positive Reentry Program Initiative did not qualify for the ballot in Maine as an indirect initiated state statute on November 7, 2017.

The measure would have established a Positive Reentry Program for persons convicted of a crime who were incarcerated on or after May 1, 1976. The program would have allowed eligible applicants to be released from a correctional facility and serve the unexpired portion of their sentence under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.

Text of measure

Summary

The summary of the measure was as follows:

“

This initiated bill establishes the Positive Reentry Program for persons convicted of a crime who are incarcerated pursuant to a sentence imposed on or after May 1, 1976. A person who has completed a specified portion of that person's sentence may apply to the Positive Reentry Program Committee for acceptance into the program. The committee is directed to develop administrative release guidelines using evidence-based risk assessment criteria for use by the committee in evaluating applications for the program. A person who is accepted into the program, upon release, serves the unexpired portion of the person's sentence under the supervision of the Department of Corrections and is subject to any special conditions of the program imposed by the committee. The committee may terminate a person's participation in the program if that person violates the law or a condition of the program. The committee is directed to develop administrative violation and termination guidelines using fact-based risk assessment criteria that must be used to evaluate complaints filed for violation or termination. The initiated bill provides that a person at a correctional facility may be transferred to a halfway house, sober living house, transitional house or assisted living facility or transferred to participate in any approved rehabilitation and reentry program in order to assist in reentry of a person who does not have a stable place to which to be released. A person who shows through methods including but not limited to pre-release inspections and background checks of inhabitants of a dwelling where that person will live that that person has a stable place to which that person may be released must be approved for release to that place.

”

Full text

The full text of the measure can be found here.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Maine and Signature requirements for ballot measures in Maine

• Neda Washer submitted the petition, and the measure was issued and approved for circulation on June 21, 2016.
• To qualify for the 2017 ballot, proponents needed to collect 61,123 signatures—a number determined by taking 10 percent of the total votes cast for governor in November 2014—by January 26, 2017. No signatures were submitted.
• The measure expired on December 21, 2017.

See also

Suggest a link

• 2017 ballot measures
• Maine 2017 ballot measures
• Maine ballot measures
• Laws governing the initiative process in Maine