All posts by Erin Rhoda

Erin Rhoda

About Erin Rhoda

Erin Rhoda is editor of Maine Focus, a journalism and community engagement initiative by the Bangor Daily News.

The quirks of Maine’s prescription monitoring program, from an ER doc’s perspective

Dr. Charles Pattavina became chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at St. Joseph Hospital 6½ years ago. He hadn’t been at the Bangor facility more than a couple weeks when a man sent by the Maine office of substance abuse knocked on his door to talk about why he should use the state’s prescription […]

Is Maine ready to help prisoners released early? Has it ever been?

Starting Nov. 1, 2015, it’s possible that as many as 200 Maine inmates convicted of drug-related crimes will become eligible over time for an earlier release, under a likely change in federal sentencing guidelines. That means a greater number of federal prisoners could be returning to their homes, families and communities in a shorter period […]