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Maine State Prison

Few people are aware that the state prison housed female inmates (as young as age 16). These women were artifacts of historical and social circumstances —an overlooked part of our history, an unglamorous part of our population. They had no voice and were essentially ignored —until now. Three chapters reveals more about the state prison than previously available.

Reporters interviewed two convicted mothers. However, news of their release, pardon, parole or even death during confinement in prison was not newsworthy. The people who flocked to those trials and gossiped endlessly about the mother and her crime and punishment remembered for a time—then these mothers were forgotten.