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We asked our viewers what issues matter most to them this election cycle and we are highlighting the top responses, including crime. The most recent state crime data is from 2022 and there were 1404 violent crimes reported that year. Still, crime is front of mind for many Mainers, especially in the wake of the tragedy in Lewiston last year.In 2023, there were 53 homicides in Maine, 10 of which were domestic violence-related. That’s the most recent data but Arthur Jette, director of the Maine Chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, said the loved ones of the victims are never the same.”My walk in this side of the veil began in December of 1999,” Jette said.That’s when his 22-month-old grandson, Treavon, and his daughter’s best friend, Mindy, who was babysitting Treavon, were killed by Mindy’s ex-boyfriend.”No matter what the sentence the defendant receives, that sentence to the families and the victims is always a life sentence,” he said.Jeffery Cookson was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences for the murders of Treavon Cunningham and 20-year-old Mindy Gould in 2001.After that experience, Jette became involved in the Maine Chapter of the Parents of Murdered Children. “There are more advocates in the jails on behalf of prisoners than there are on behalf of victims anywhere,” he said.Twenty years after he lost his grandson and his daughter’s best friend, another one of his grandsons, Jacob Jette, was murdered on his way home from a house party in Florida. He was 19. The Maine Department of Corrections has been working for years to do its part to reduce recidivism by offering treatment programs and opportunities for DOC residents to get college degrees and even jobs.”The most important thing that the Maine Department of Corrections does is reduce return to custody,” DOC Commissioner Randy Liberty said.He added that this makes our state safer, and he says he sees it working.Nationwide, the recidivism rate is 65%, here in Maine, the recidivism rate for men is 23%, for women, it’s 9% and for someone who has received at least an associate’s degree while in the prison system, it’s .5%”Most of these individuals by far that is in our custody, and the question becomes are they healthier upon release, are they safer to go back into the community, will they be good fathers, good mothers, good siblings,” Liberty added.But Jette says when a person commits a violent crime, they don’t deserve to have the types of treatment the Maine DOC offers.”It shouldn’t be possible for you to kill somebody and then come out and be insulated from any other suits or any other kind of actions just because you were in prison for a certain period of time,” he said.The state’s annual crime data is typically released by the Maine State Police in December. Related content: