by Becca Shaw Glaser December 14, 2021, The Free Press
Lori Swain grew up in South Portland and has lived in Cape Elizabeth for nearly thirty years. She works as a tax accountant, volunteers as a therapeutic foster parent and fosters animals for the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland.
Since December 2015, her son, Zach, has been locked up at the Maine State Prison in Warren, spending about five of the past six years in solitary confinement. Despite having received emotional health services since he was 7, being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, PTSD, severe anxiety, and depression, being on the autism spectrum, and attempting suicide several times in prison, MSP has refused to house him in its Intensive Mental Health Unit. Arrested in his senior year of high school after an altercation in South Portland involving seven young men and a small amount of marijuana, Zach was convicted of stabbing someone while, Lori says, running in the dark as shots were being fired by others.
Zach took part in a recent hunger strike with four other incarcerated men in MSP’s Administrative Control Unit, where the men can be confined to their cells for up to 22 hours each day. With the hunger strike, they wanted to bring attention to their plight, as prison officials were simultaneously conducting a media campaign that seemed to claim the prison no longer uses solitary
confinement. The incarcerated men were also striking for basic dignities such as improved access to health care, phone calls, and religious services. Lori told me “interviews, articles and legislative hearings are totally out of my comfort zone and not who I am. I’ve been forced into this to save my son’s life — and the lives of others.” We discussed, over email, the hunger strike, current conditions at the prison, and what needs to change.
Becca: In your testimony in support of LD 696, a bill to ban solitary confinement in Maine’s “correctional” system, you said, “My guess is that most of the people at the prison suffer from trauma; however, instead of being treated, they are punished.” What makes you guess that trauma is part of most people’s backgrounds at MSP?
Lori: I became a therapeutic foster parent because I saw the children at Sweetser residential, Spring Harbor, and Long Creek who had no one and were wards of the state. I wanted to help and make a difference. [Childhood trauma] changes people. Their brains don’t develop in the same way that a healthy child’s develops. There’s a lot of PTSD and anxiety. They act and react differently than those who grew up in a healthy, loving family and had their needs met. Many of the young men and women who have been institutionalized or not received proper treatment in the foster system are now incarcerated.
Becca: Can you talk about who Zach is?
Lori: Zach is a great kid with a difficult disability. He is a true friend who would give you the shirt off his back and be loyal to a fault. He volunteered at the nursing home in Cape Elizabeth, holding a weekly group called “Games with Zach,” where he would play games with the residents and help them with computer issues. He tutored younger kids at school in math and read to them. He volunteered with the Special Olympics and had a lemonade stand to raise money for them. After snowblowing our yard, he would go to the neighbors’ and do their yards. They probably came home and didn’t know who had done this for them. He never asked for any praise; he just liked to help others. Zach has a brilliant mind but struggled to attend school. Zach loves his family and is looking forward to being able to help his grandparents, who have become elderly while he has
been at MSP. He loves animals. I’m hoping there will be a program available so he can get an emotional support dog.
Becca: What are your emotions related to your son being in the MSP?
Lori: They are hard to articulate. You really have to experience it to understand. I think it started with shock, denial and fear. There’s been a lot of sadness at what has been done to my son and a lot of frustration that the prison officials allow it to happen and haven’t acted on it when I’ve reached out to them. My feelings have now turned to anger after experiencing the broken parts of the system, seeing how the prison abuses and tortures people, and realizing there is no accountability for those working at the prison. I appreciate those who are doing good things, but there are many who are only hurting the men living at MSP. The residents (inmates) have no protection and are often sentenced to more time for standing up for themselves against these mean and corrupt correctional officers.
Becca: What are the visiting, call, and letter-writing rules?
Lori: I pay $20 monthly for text messaging so Zach can text me when he has his tablet. He’s allowed two 10-minute phone calls a week, with an attempted call that doesn’t go through counting as a completed call. He can write letters but we’ve had such a difficult time with his mail being held that we don’t bother anymore. I had one letter saying he was going to kill himself that didn’t get to me until two months later when he had already attempted suicide. He can have one one-hour visit per week, no contact, so we have to sit in a tiny concrete booth and talk through a window. It’s really hard to hear and we spend most of our time having to repeat ourselves. We drive about four hours round-trip for this kind of a visit.
Becca: Why does the MSP say Zach doesn’t qualify for the Intensive Mental Health Unit?
Lori: MSP will not say. We never knew about the unit until some of the medical staff who worked with Zach recommended it and said it would be very helpful for
him. Zach was told that he was too intelligent and that’s why they think the higher-ups didn’t approve it. Zach has had services and diagnoses since about 7 years old, yet the prison says he’s faking his mental illness. It’s really unbelievable how unequipped and incapable they are of treating these men.
Becca: What can you tell me about the recent hunger strike?
Lori: Zach told me that on Sunday night, November 14, the men refused their meals and told the CO who brought their trays that they were starting a hunger strike. Although it is supposed to be recorded in the log book and reported to administration and medical, he said the CO wrote in the log book that he gave the men their meals. This went on until Tuesday when Zach said one of the men asked the sergeant to take him to medical because he didn’t feel well. While at medical, the man disclosed that they hadn’t eaten since Sunday because of the strike. Zach said the sergeant went to the log book and saw that the CO stated he gave the men their meals. The sergeant then looked back at videos and confirmed that the men were telling the truth. He reported the hunger strike to the appropriate people and started the hunger strike log book. To my knowledge, nothing happened to the CO. This is disturbing because if the men had been found eating when they claimed a hunger strike, then they would have been written up and disciplined. There’s definitely a double-standard where the COs are not held accountable for their inappropriate and illegal actions. Contrary to what the prison spokesperson reported to the media, [Zach said] medical was not checking on the men, they were not eating commissary, and no one was talking to the men. After the media reported the incident, administration met with the
sergeant, who acted as spokesperson for the men. To my knowledge, no changes have been made.
Becca: Prison officials claim that the ACU isn’t really solitary confinement because they have, among other things, “extensive programming.”
Lori: Heather Richardson, the former unit manager, who has been promoted to deputy warden and head of programming, recently told The Free Press that they had no one in solitary confinement or segregation, when she knows this to be untrue. The solitary confinement unit was just renamed ACU. There are also the SMU and C-Pod, which are solitary confinement units. There may be more. They just rename them and state they don’t have solitary confinement or segregation anymore. The only programming in solitary is on a tablet they do alone in their cell, once they earn a tablet. My son, after six months with NO write-ups, is kept in a small cell with no social contact except through the vents and is only
allowed out of his cell in four-way restraints for zero to two hours a day. He finally has earned a tablet where he can text if someone is willing to pay for the texting, listen to some music and has access to limited programming on it (which he’s already completed multiple times, so nothing new or helpful).
Becca: Did the hunger strikers get further punishment?
Lori: The expectation was that they would be treated as in the past — pepper sprayed, put in the restraint chair, and put on a suicide watch (which is very unpleasant) and then disciplined. They were surprised this didn’t happen. I’m sure it’s because of all the press.
Becca: What do you think of MSP’s new policy to call the people they are imprisoning “residents”?
Lori: I think it’s all a PR stunt. Zachary doesn’t care what he’s called. I’m not sure that he even heard about being called a “resident.” He’d just like to be treated with dignity and respect. If you treat someone worse than a caged animal, it doesn’t matter what you call them.
Becca: In August, The Bangor Daily News reported that Zach’s attorney was trying to get Zach released to a residential facility in February, yet prosecutors in the Knox County District Attorney’s office wanted to imprison him for several more years for “new crimes” done in prison — even though many of them seemed like minor things such as spitting.
Lori: Anything Zach did was in response to a very severe act by a CO. The things they did to him are inhumane and should never happen anywhere. They torment the inmates to get a reaction and then pepper spray them, put them in the restraint chair for hours and then more discipline and more time in solitary confinement. If the inmate finally responds to this torture and abuse by spitting or touching a CO, they charge them with felony assault on an officer. They then get more prison time, which is the worst thing for them. It’s a never-ending vicious cycle that needs to be broken. The assistant DA wanted a minimum of 10 more years for Zach. The court-appointed attorneys were no help at all. Zach
would have been sitting at MSP for 10+ more years if we hadn’t spent a lot of money to hire an attorney (Robert Levine, who did a great job and was relentless in his pursuit for the right outcome). [Knox County District Attorney] Natasha Irving found out about Zach when she was meeting with two inmates at the prison about the restorative justice program. They were worried because they had mentored Zach and were not able to see him anymore. Zach’s most recent suicide
attempt [which involved swallowing toenail clippers, a piece of wire and part of a cup] ended with him in the infirmary after several surgeries and with a colostomy bag. Natasha took over Zach’s case and dropped the ridiculous charges. A judge
approved the deal this past week and Zach will be released on 2/28/22.
I’ve never met Natasha Irving, but I owe my son’s life to her (and Robert and [BDN reporter] Callie Ferguson). Natasha Irving is the first person in power who did the right thing for my son. I sent a letter to Governor Mills last December after Zach almost died by hanging himself twice in the prison. He was in bad shape after being beaten by two of the COs. I begged her to save my son from solitary confinement and get mental health services for him. I never heard anything back
from them. Our own governor doesn’t seem to care.
Becca: Are there groups that help you endure?
Lori: Yes, I started attending Rose’s Room when it began a few years ago. Rose’s Room is a safe and confidential place for anyone affected by the criminal justice system to be heard and supported. They have become like family and have helped me survive when I felt I was on my own through this journey.
Becca: What does society gain by doing this to your son?
Lori: Society gains nothing. Like men who return after serving our country in the armed forces, men who leave prison come out with PTSD, trauma and anxiety that needs to be treated. Society has paid a lot of money to keep Zachary in solitary confinement for [nearly] six years. Now, we will pay even more to rehabilitate him after being abused and tortured at MSP. As a Christian mother, I told him that he made a mistake and he had to take the consequences. If I had known how unjust the consequences would be, I would have told him to go to trial. I tried to do what I thought was right; I wish the “justice” and “corrections” system had done what was right and just and correct. Heather Richardson told him at a recent board hearing that he won’t leave ACU [before his release in February]. That means they will walk him to the door in 4-way restraints and let him go. No rehabilitation, no mental health services, nothing. How does this help him, us, or society as a whole?
Becca: What can folks on the outside do to change conditions inside the MSP?
Lori: They can contact the media, their representatives, and the governor. We are currently working on LD 696, sponsored by Rep. Grayson Lookner in Portland. It’s a plan to ban solitary confinement (whatever you want to call it) and get proper training for the COs and proper treatment for the residents. Since Governor Mills has vetoed any bills related to improving corrections, I suspect that unless she feels the heat from constituents or we can get enough legislators to pass the bill and make it vetoproof, she will veto it. I’ve just heard that the DOC is lobbying against LD 696. If they have no solitary confinement or segregation, why oppose it? If they truly want to change the prison to a place to help people and rehabilitate, why oppose it?