Finding Our Voices gathers and amplifies voices of survivors to alert everyone in Maine to the domestic abuse all around us. In April, eight women domestic abuse survivors from this group gave harrowing testimony in support of LD 692 before the Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety. They spoke about the terror and risk they and their children were pulled into by their convicted intimate partners not receiving adequate prison time, and also by not being notified about the ahead-of-schedule release of these violent criminals. 

 

Along with Rep. Doudera, others who testified in support of  An Act Regarding Eligibility of County Jail Inmates for a Community Confinement Monitoring Program included the Maine Prosecutors Association, the Maine Sheriff’s Association, and the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, which helped to draft the bill. 

 

Patrisha McLean, founder/president of Finding Our Voices, said that she was alerted to the “back door” release from jail of domestic abusers from a victim who asked her to find out why her ex who had just reported for his two-month jail sentence was now posting on social media. The man had two previous convictions for domestic violence against two different women and was on probation when he criminally assaulted her. (McLean wrote about the criminal history of this perpetrator in a Jan. 18, 2022 column for The Free Press). 

 

“After some calls,” said McLean, “I found out that he had been released through something called the Community Confinement Monitoring Program, that this program does not confine and does not monitor, and that sexual abusers were exempt but domestic abusers were not. That’s when I contacted my Representative, Vicki Doudera, to see about also curtailing these Get Out of Jail Free cards for domestic abusers.”

 

The bill also strengthens the victim notification process, requiring officials to document the attempts made to alert the victim to the early release, and provide notice of the release to the District Attorney and local domestic abuse agency. 

 

"I was shocked when Patrisha told me of this loophole and only too glad to work on the legislation," Doudera said. "Women should not have to live in fear that their abusers will be released into the community without their input or knowledge. It's a public safety issue, and I'm grateful to Finding Our Voices for their leadership and for the brave stories shared by those survivors who testified." 

 

Patrisha McLean’s ex-husband the singer-songwriter Don McLean received a Deferred Disposition plea deal that resulted in no jail time for his domestic violence charges against her in 2016. https://www.pressherald.com/2016/07/21/singer-don-mclean-takes-plea-deal-in-domestic-violence-case/

 

McLean said, “as more and more Maine women who are domestic abuse survivors connect through Finding Our Voices, more and more understand that what we thought was disregard for us as individuals by those charged with keeping us safe is actually universal, with a system in Maine that skews to services, rights, and consideration for the perpetrator over the victim. There is a long list of things that need to change to make our state safe for women and children and LD 692 is a good first step. I am grateful to our governor, my legislative representative Vicki Doudera, my survivor sisters who testified, and everyone else who played a part in its passage.”

 

Finding Our Voices is the grassroots, survivor-powered nonprofit boldly breaking the silence across Maine, including with programs empowering women survivors to get and keep themselves and their children safe and rebuild their lives.  For more information visit https://findingourvoices.net or contact the president/founder Patrisha McLean directly at hello@findingourvoices.net.