The Legislative Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety voted unanimously on Monday in favor of a bill from Rep. Nina Milliken (D-Blue Hill) that would allow prisoners to opt into additional monetary restitution for their victims.

“Many of the folks that I have met in the prisons in Maine are extremely remorseful for the various offenses that they have committed and many of them do work every day within the prison setting to do what they can to make amends to the communities that they have harmed,” said Rep. Milliken during her testimony on the bill.

“I believe strongly that this language keeps victims safety and well-being as the top priority while simultaneously allowing offenders to make amends as they are willing and able to by providing their victims monetary support,” she added.

Her bill, LD 533, was submitted as a concept draft, a process criticized by Republican lawmakers that allows a legislator to submit a bill with just the title and add the text later, potentially allowing legislators to obscure the content and details of the bill from average Mainers prior to its public hearing.

The concept draft did not receive any co-sponsorships.

Based on Milliken’s testimony, the bill would allow prisoners the option to send additional restitution funds to a victim, but only after paying off the full amount of any court-mandated restitution owed.

The payment would not require or permit any direct communication between the victim and perpetrator. A criminal would submit the funds to the Department of Corrections (DOC) Victim Services, which would then notify the victims that the funds exist. Victims would then have five years in which to decide whether to accept the money. If the money is rejected, it would be deposited into the general Victims’ Compensation Fund.

The criminal would not be informed whether the victim accepted the offered funds.

As presented by Milliken, the bill does not grant any additional leniency or benefits to prisoners who opt into the program, although authorities are likely to look favorably on those who participate when considering possible parole.

Despite the use of a concept draft, the bill did not appear to have any detractors, as no one testified against it during the public hearing.

The current fiscal note claims that there will be no taxpayer impact from implementing the bill.

The DOC testified neither for nor against the bill, supporting its purpose but questioned whether many prisoners would choose to participate in the program.

“The department is unsure how many residents are interested in such a process and how much this process will actually be utilized, and for that reason we remain neither for nor against LD 533,” said the DOC.

They did say that one current prisoner has expressed interest in providing additional compensation to their victim.

The rest of the testimonies unambiguously supported the bill.

“I believe that the ability for incarcerated residents to pay additional restitution to their
victims can only lead to more healing for victims. There is no way to undo harm once
it is caused but people who are trying to atone for their wrongdoings can use
voluntary restitution as a way of doing some good for the ones they harmed,” said Thazra-Rosie Hylton of South Portland.

She claimed that her currently incarcerated brother would like to provide additional restitution to his victim, but has no ability to do so unless this bill passes into law.

In an unusual turn of events, the committee voted immediately after the public hearing to begin an unscheduled work session on the bill, in which they quickly voted unanimously to send the bill to the broader legislature with an “ought to pass as amended” recommendation, accepting the text proposed by the sponsor.