AUGUSTA – The Maine Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee has scrapped a proposed policy change that would allow employees of the Maine Correctional Center in Windham to use deadly force to stop inmates attempting to escape.

In requesting the policy change, the Department of Corrections did not expect to set off the media firestorm that ensued last month, according to Scott Landry, the superintendent of the correctional center.

“I don’t think anybody would have anticipated it would have gotten the attention that it did,” Landry said. “It was really intended more as a housekeeping measure.”

Officers and supervisors at the Maine State Prison in Warren are allowed to kill prisoners when they believe “it is necessary to prevent an escape from custody.” According to law, the prison officials must first “make reasonable efforts to advise the person that if the attempt to escape does not stop immediately, deadly force will be used.” The amendment to the law would allow the use of deadly force at the Maine Correctional Center, as well.

Landry said that the department requested the policy amendment because of the changing inmate population at the Windham facility. During the past decade, Landry said, the population of the correctional center has changed from mostly low-level offenders to, increasingly, mid-level and high-level offenders, including many inmates charged with murder. At this point, he said, the Windham facility now holds nearly as many offenders that the department considers to be dangerous as the Warren prison does.

According to press reports, state Sen. Gary Plummer, R-Cumberland, a one-time proponent of the proposed policy change, voted to strip the provision from the corrections bill. Plummer could not be reached for comment.

Landry said escape attempts at the prison off River Road in South Windham are rare.

“This is the department’s position on the matter, and we accept the conclusions of the criminal justice committee,” he said. “We’ve managed thus far without the statute being changed, and we will continue to function as we have.”