Finding housing is tough in southern Maine, but it’s particularly tough for a convicted kidnapper.
Anyone who has been following the ongoing saga of Norman Dickinson knows that. Dickinson has been kicked out of home after home in his quest to start his life again after years of imprisonment.
His story highlights the state’s lack of adequate homes and services for those who are trying to reintegrate back into society after years of institutional care. Dickinson belongs in some sort of halfway house – for his sake. Living in prison is nothing like living outside of prison, and people need help adjusting, especially people who suffer from some sort of mental illness.
Instead, the state has tried to place him in apartment after apartment. It has spent time, money and energy trying to convince citizens that he is “nowhere near as dangerous” as some other former criminals living in society.
Well, that’s a relief.
We understand why neighbors are so leery of living next to this man with a history of erratic criminal behavior and who once notoriously described himself as a “time bomb.” Dickinson has been in and out of prison for most of his life, starting at age 12 when a string of burglaries landed him in the Maine Youth Center. Years later, in 1989, he landed in jail on much more serious charges – kidnapping, criminal threatening and robbery.
Ever since he was first released from prison on those charges in 1997, Dickinson hasn’t been able to stay out of jail. He has repeatedly violated his parole and eventually served his entire sentence for those charges.
Perhaps, Dickinson has found jail to be a much more bearable place. It’s certainly more familiar to him.
“What we lack in Maine is a structured step-down program, a program where people who have spent a significant amount of time in an institution can transition back into society,” Assistant Commissioner for Corrections Denise Lord said to the Lakes Region Weekly, a sister publication of the American Journal, when Dickinson was released from prison last fall.
That’s why what has happened since Dickinson was released last fall could have been predicted. And, that’s why it’s wrong.
Dickinson had originally planned to move into an apartment on Congress Street in Portland, after he was released from prison this fall. But the landlord there balked at renting to him. Dickinson was then going to move to Raymond, until town officials there voiced concerns. So, the Department of Corrections stuck him temporarily in a trailer outside of the Maine Correctional Center.
From there, Dickinson moved to Pine Point in Scarborough, where he was greeted by neighbors who weren’t too pleased to see him, some of whom gathered one night outside of his cottage and yelled at him. Dickinson then headed to Main Street in Westbrook where he resided for just one day before he went back to jail on a probation violation.
His reception in Westbrook has been no different than it has been anywhere else, and he is now leaving his apartment on Main Street for a new home, the location of which has yet to be determined.
The state has moved away from residential care for people transitioning back to society because places like the Augusta Mental Health Institute were considered inhumane. The state has moved toward “care delivered by the community” because it is “more humane and respects the rights of the individual,” according to Mike Norton, the spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, who spoke to the Lakes Region Weekly for the same story cited above.
However, that assertion leads to the obvious question: How much more humane has that “community care” been for Norman Dickinson?
While conditions at places like the Augusta Mental Health Institute were inhumane, the concept behind institutional care was not. In some cases, some form of residential care is the only humane place for a former convict.
Brendan Moran, editor
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