People without stable housing are arrested much more often than those with permanent housing, usually for nonviolent, low-level offenses. To better understand this disparity in our state, the ACLU of Maine is asking for public records related to the arrests of unhoused people.

Due to heavy policing and criminalization of homelessness, unhoused people are often victims of serious civil rights violations, including the destruction of personal property and police targeting and abuse. Subjecting unhoused people to frequent interactions with the criminal justice system does not solve homelessness. In fact, it does the opposite, trapping people in a cycle of homelessness and incarceration, making it nearly impossible to access housing and other critical services and resources. In order to create real solutions to homelessness, we need to understand the link between homelessness and the criminal justice system.

To increase public understanding of the interactions between unhoused people, police, and the criminal justice system, the ACLU of Maine is requesting public records related to the arrests of unhoused people. Specifically, we requested any and all records, from January 1, 2025 to present, related to arrests of people with a listed address of “unhoused,” “homeless,” or “transient."

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