From CBS News · · 1m 10s
Maine's prison chief bets on redemption
Randall Liberty runs Maine's prisons on a conviction most corrections officials never say out loud: people can change.
In brief
Randall Liberty runs Maine's prisons on a conviction most corrections officials never say out loud: people can change. Treating incarcerated people with dignity, and giving them real education and work, is a corrections strategy, not a soft add-on. Originally reported by CBS News.
A chief who says it plainly
Randall Liberty, commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections, leads the state's prison system with an openly stated belief in second chances.
“I believe in redemption”
Family shaped the view
Liberty's own family experience with incarceration informs how he runs the system. The conviction is personal before it is policy.
Education inside the walls
His approach centers on giving incarcerated people access to real education, not just time served.
Work and training that count
Employment and job training sit alongside education, so people leave with skills an employer will actually pay for.
Dignity as policy
Liberty treats dignity as part of the program, not a courtesy. How people are treated inside shapes who walks out.
Part of Beg-Knows America
The profile runs as an installment of the CBS News series "Beg-Knows America," which looks at people reshaping American institutions.
The one thing
Treating incarcerated people with dignity, and giving them real education and work, is a corrections strategy, not a soft add-on.
