Maine State Prison

Yeah, I started as a photojournalist in New York and ended up getting a grant to photograph aging in prison.

I spent a lot of time doing that in Mains- in Maine, at Maine State Prison and Maine Correctional Center, and that photo essay that I did was published in National Geographic.

And while I was there in the women's prison is where I happened upon Jacinta, who's a participant in my first film, Jacinta and her mother, Rosemary.

And then I just didn't mean to change paths, but that's kinda how it happened.

Wayne had been at the county jail much longer than was typical.

He was in the middle of appealing earlier convictions, and while those cases moved through the appellate process, he remains in county custody rather than being transferred to Maine State Prison to begin his given sentence.

Jeff Seidman reports for the Kennebec Journal that for fourteen months, Wayne had worked as the jailhouse cook and was considered a trustee, an inmate given certain responsibilities and privileges because jail officials believed he could be trusted.

That status gave Wayne considerably more freedom than most of the people held there.

Wayne's record stretched back at least 16 years.

In 1956, Auburn Police arrested him on charges of aggravated assault, rape, and robbery.

He was convicted and sentenced to serve at least 20 years in Maine State Prison, but Wayne was paroled in August of 1964.

Though he wasn't out for long.