This bill is reported out by the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary to implement recommendations of the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services. The committee has not taken a position on the substance of this bill. By reporting this bill out, the committee is not suggesting and does not intend to suggest that it agrees or disagrees with any aspect of this bill; instead, the committee is reporting the bill out for the sole purpose of having a bill printed that can be referred to the committee for an appropriate public hearing and subsequent processing in the normal course. The committee is taking this action to ensure clarity and transparency in the legislative review of the proposals contained in the bill. Current law requires the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services to send a list of names and contact information for attorneys who provide legal services to persons who are incarcerated to all sheriff's offices and to the Department of Corrections on a weekly basis and provides that each jail or correctional facility has constructive notice of the attorneys' names, telephone numbers and other contact information on the list on the Monday following transmission of the information. Current law further provides that if an oral or wire communication between an incarcerated person and one of the attorneys on the list is intercepted, the contents and existence of the communication are not admissible in a criminal proceeding, including a post-conviction review proceeding, and a person who viewed or listened to the intercepted communication is prohibited from participating in certain criminal investigations involving the defendant and appearing as a witness in certain criminal proceedings against the defendant. The bill amends these provisions of law in the following ways.
1. It clarifies that the commission is required to send the names and contact information only of attorneys who provide public defense services to persons who are incarcerated.
2. It prohibits a jail, correctional facility or 3rd-party contractor providing communication services to a jail or correctional facility from intercepting oral or wire communications between these attorneys or employees of the attorneys' law offices or from charging a fee for such communications. It also provides that unlawful interception of such communications is a civil violation for which a penalty of $5,000 must be imposed and unlawful charging of a fee for such communications is a civil violation for which a penalty of $500 must be imposed.
3. It requires each jail or correctional facility to send an electronic communication to each attorney whose name and contact information is included on the commission's list certifying that communications between the listed telephone number for the attorney and the jail or correctional facility will not be intercepted and that no fee will be charged for those communications and providing the name and contact information of the person at the jail or correctional facility responsible for implementing these requirements. It further provides that failure to send such an electronic communication is a civil violation for which a penalty of $250 must be imposed.

Statutes affected:
Bill Text LD 1825, SP 712: 4.1804, 15.714, 34-A.3015