Samantha Hogan

133 posts

Samantha Hogan focuses on government accountability projects for The Maine Monitor. She joined the newsroom as its first full-time reporter in 2019 with Report for America. Samantha was named the 2021 Maine’s Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press Association, and spent 2020 reporting on Maine’s court system through the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Her reporting on county jails recording and listening to attorney-client phone calls won the Silver Gavel award from the American Bar Association and was also a semi-finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2023. Samantha previously worked for The Frederick News-Post and interned twice for The Washington Post.

An illustration of four overworked attorneys, as well as an inmate locked in a jail cell.

Commission endorses statewide public defender network for Maine

Proposed expansion would cost $8.8 million and hire more than three dozen public defenders.

BySamantha Hogan

October 11, 2023

Voters stand at voting booths to fill out their ballots on Election Day.

Maine’s constitution says people in guardianships with mental illness cannot vote. Voters can change that in November.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows urges approval of a ballot question that would eliminate "antiquated" language that is "not even legally enforceable."

BySamantha Hogan

October 8, 2023

A drawn illustration of the inside of a courtroom. On the left, an inmate dressed in an orange jumpsuit is looking at the empty seat next to them where their defense attorney should be sitting. On the right, sitting at a separate table, is a prosecutor.

Maine’s indigent defense crisis deepens

Advocates complain that defendants are being denied lawyers or assigned attorneys who aren’t up to the job.

BySamantha Hogan

October 8, 2023

A screenshot of Senator Stacey Guerin presenting the Maine Republican Party's weekly radio address.

GOP lawmaker calls for scrutiny of DHHS after disclosure of eight public guardianship deaths

Lawmakers have scheduled an Oct. 25 meeting with the department to explain how it handles guardianships and how it will comply with notification requirements.