Maine private prison bill headed to dead files

AUGUSTA — A bill carried over from last year's session to allow a privately run prison in Maine has been killed.

The bill last year won support from some lawmakers in the Milo area, but not enough to pass. It was carried over to this year's session to address the issue of Maine's aging prison population. But on Monday afternoon, the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted unanimously to kill the bill.

Democratic Sen. Stanley Gerzofsky of Brunswick saw the bill as a way to authorize a private prison company to open a facility that cares for Maine's increasing number of aging long-term prisoners who need special care.

But Gerzofsky says no companies are interested in providing that special service, so he asked that the bill be killed.