Third ‘radio hour’ covers public defense, aging care facilities

The Maine Monitor Radio Hour is a monthly program in which reporters and editors from The Maine Monitor join WERU host Amy Browne for a discussion about the newsroom’s recent reporting.

This month, Browne was joined by deputy editor Stephanie McFeeters, government accountability reporter Josh Keefe and public health reporter Rose Lundy for a discussion of their recent work.

For many years, Maine was the only state without any public defender system to represent clients who couldn’t afford an attorney. Instead the state paid private attorneys on a case-by-case basis.

Keefe sat in on a meeting and talked in-depth with Frayla Tarpinian, Maine’s first district defender and head of the Capital Region Public Defender’s Office, about the strategy to defend indigent defendants in Kennebec and Somerset counties, and how that strategy will be a blueprint for future offices planned for across Maine.

Meanwhile, elopement — when a resident wanders out of a care home — is a real risk, particularly for people with dementia. But in the vast majority of cases in Maine, the facilities are never inspected and rarely sanctioned.

Lundy, in partnership with ProPublica, examined how Maine’s health department rarely investigates when residents wander away from their care facilities.

Listen to episode 3 and tune in to WERU 89.9 FM the first Thursday of every month at 4 p.m. to listen live.