Josh Keefe

20 posts

Josh Keefe is a government accountability reporter for The Maine Monitor with a focus on Maine’s child welfare system and indigent defense system.

Previously, he worked as an investigative reporter for The Tennessean in Nashville and Bangor Daily News. Originally from Veazie, he now lives in Portland.

His accountability reporting on Tennessee’s child welfare system, Maine county law enforcement, and the Maine Army National Guard has been recognized by the Sidney Hillman Foundation, New England First Amendment Coalition, Maine Press Association and Tennessee Press Association.

Contact Josh with questions, concerns or story ideas: josh@themainemonitor.org

Language(s) Spoken: English

exterior of the Office of Child and Family Services building.

New federal data shows Maine’s child welfare agency is moving against national trends

“We’re flooding the system,” said one child advocate, arguing that Maine is failing to keep kids safe not because it is investigating too few families but because it is investigating too many.

ByJosh Keefe

January 19, 2025

The list of Maine parents waiting for a lawyer grew by 700 percent in 2024 — and it may not account for the whole problem

As some attorneys question whether the state’s list of unstaffed cases is properly maintained, there are efforts to build a team of public defenders devoted to representing indigent parents in child protection cases.

ByJosh Keefe

January 5, 2025

How we reported on Maine’s housing crunch

Finding housing as a blue-collar worker on the island was tough back when I was waiting tables in 2009. In the intervening years, it has become nearly impossible.

ByJosh Keefe

December 29, 2024

exterior of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Federal audit finds Maine’s child welfare agency failed to follow its own policies

Inspectors made a series of recommendations, including additional training for caseworkers and supervisors and a system for documenting when notification letters are sent out.

ByJosh Keefe

November 16, 2024

Exterior of Cumberland County Courthouse in shadows.

‘A recusal issue inside a recusal issue’: An ethics inquiry puts the Maine Supreme Court in uncharted territory

The Committee on Judicial Conduct recommended that a justice be disciplined for failing to recuse from two foreclosure cases. Now it’s up to her colleagues to decide.

ByJosh Keefe

November 3, 2024

A black sign reading "Probate Office" is attached to the wall outside the doorway to the office.

In Maine’s probate courts, most adults placed in guardianships don’t have lawyers

A new report from Disability Rights Maine found that between 2019 and 2021, 75 percent of people placed in guardianships did not have an attorney.

ByJosh Keefe

October 20, 2024

A quarter of Maine House races have only one major-party candidate. Here’s a map of those districts.

The number of races where Democrats and Republicans did not face off rose significantly in the pandemic election of 2020, and has stayed at almost the same level since.

ByJosh Keefe

October 5, 2024