State to repay inmates for seized unemployment benefits
The state has agreed to return unemployment benefits it seized from about 50 incarcerated workers at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a news release from the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine.
The U.S. District Court in Portland received Tuesday, April 26 a request from the state to approve the settlement of a class action lawsuit challenging the state’s seizure of unemployment benefits that had been awarded to inmates when COVID-19 forced them to leave their work release jobs in the community.
The lawsuit was filed in June 2020 by attorney Christopher MacLean of Camden on behalf of then inmate Marc Sparks. The lawsuit asked the U.S. District Court to rule the order by Gov. Janet Mills to stop the payments was