Representative Jim Schatz (D-Blue Hill) has gotten seven of the 10 members of legislative leadership to back his proposal to tightly restrict the usage of solitary confinement in Maine's prisons. We have been writing about abuse of Maine prisoners at the hands of Maine guards and corrections officials for four years; mentally ill inmates are particularly harmed by these practices.

The Black Bird Collective's eight-week petition drive gathering opposition to torture and human-rights abuses in the Maine State Prison will close tonight with an evening talk about Maine prison conditions, international human-rights laws, and the collective's efforts to support anti-torture legislation in Maine and at the federal level.