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The Shawshank succession: maine built a state-of-the-art prison to replace the one made infamous in the movies. It filled up almost overnight, but many inside don''t belong there. Now the question is what to do with them.

Article Excerpt
IN THE MID-1990S, WHEN THEN-GOV. ANGUS KING UNveiled an ambitious prison construction plan, the proposal had nothing to do with any "lock-'em-up" agenda. Maine had one of the lowest incarceration rates in the country, a tradition of moderation on law-and-order issues, and no intention of changing either one. The centerpiece of King's plan was a $65 million maximum-security prison, which opened in the town of Warren in February 2002. The new facility was built to replace a 178-year-old, red-brick monolith that, as local lore has it, was a model for the grim prison of Stephen King's Shawshank Redemption.

Referring to the old prison, Angus King (who is no relation to the writer) says, "It was almost Dickensian, it was the oldest prison in the country and it was very expensive to run." By building the modern prison, the state expunged a stigma, and Maine officials expected the savings in operating expenses to more than offset the new facility's capital cost.

But a funny thing happened on the way to fiscal prudence: Maine's adult prison population, which had held steady and even dipped for three years in the mid-1990s, shot up. By the summer of 2003, Warren was full. "That was a total shock, because it is practically a state-of-the-art facility that was supposed to be good for 10 years," says Sen....