Jail consolidation repeal efforts moving forward

New committee
consists of county
officials, not state appointees

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — With the demise of the Maine Board of Corrections and widespread support to return local control to county jails, a new statewide committee has been formed to assist the transition and make recommendations on cost savings.

    Interim Piscataquis County Manager Tom Lizotte told the county commissioners at their March 17 meeting that the Maine County Commissioners’ Association and Maine Sheriff’s Association realizes that some county sheriffs may be “gun-shy about the committee” after their experience with the BOC.
    “No one wants to go back to a board with a state-appointed panel that’s not controlled by the counties,” Lizotte said. “But we feel there’s some value to a statewide board that would look at issues such as boarding rates, rules of governance and transfer of inmates between facilities.”
    The MCCA and MSA have endorsed a committee of three county commissioners and three sheriffs “to help achieve efficiencies and economies of scale among county jails.”
    Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin and now-retired Jail Administrator Dave Harmon were strong critics of the BOC, noting that the department was consistently penalized for operating below its budget. They maintained that funds saved during a fiscal year had traditionally been used for unexpected expenses or physical improvements to the jail.
    Lizotte, who attended a recent meeting of the MCCA, said that some mechanism had to be formed “to show that the counties can get along with each other. Otherwise, the state is unlikely to provide ongoing funding for the jails.”
    The Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee scheduled a public hearing March 23 on a bill sponsored by State Sen. Paul Davis of Sangerville (LD-186) that would repeal the jail consolidation bill but also require the state to continue its funding level of $12.2 million this year.
    Lizotte said that he isn’t sure the Legislature would go along with continued funding, even if they back the major parts of Davis’ bill. “Even the governor has said ‘Those who run the jail should pay for it.’ It’s hard to disagree with that until you look at the issue closely,” Lizotte said.
    For example, Goggin pointed out previously that county jails have 250 state regulations that they have to adhere to, Lizotte said. “So that begs the question of who really runs the jail. We also have to accept prisoners from the state police, Maine Warden Service and other agencies,” he noted.
    The new board will also try to resolve the problem of inconsistent boarding rates for prisoners which range from $80 to $160 per day, said Lizotte. “In order to get more revenue, some counties were undercutting their rates,” he said. “So that’s one instance where counties weren’t cooperating. They were stealing prisoners from each other.”
    Commissioner James Annis said that he had already discussed the situation with Sen. Davis and emphasized that unless state funding of corrections continued — at least for the time being — “we’d have to increase property taxes considerably.”
    Commissioner James White mentioned that it was ironic that the state “says they don’t want to control how you (the county) run your jails, but you’ll have to do it exactly like we tell you.”