Funding shortfall puts crimp in jail budget

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

 GREENVILLE — The often-criticized Maine Board of Corrections has been effectively disbanded, but the state’s county jails — including Piscataquis — could still be facing a funding shortfall.

 That’s because the Maine Senate unexpectedly cut state funding for county jail operations from a recommended $17.5 million to $12.5 million, Interim County Manager Tom Lizotte told the county commissioners last week.

 The jail budget has been capped by the state at $878,940, but the actual cost of operating it is over $1.4 million, Lizotte said. “Under the new law, we will have the ability to increase our share each year by the growth rate factor or 3 percent,” he said. “But that’s only $26,000 a year and it doesn’t go very far filling the gap between the cap and the actual cost of operating the jail.”

 Lizotte said that the state has also vastly overestimated the county’s boarding fees for federal prisoners. “They have $300,000 earmarked for it, but we’ve only received $171,000 during the past year,” he said.

 Lizotte said that if the county can’t exceed the 3 percent increase outlined in the statutes, there could be problems. “Can you cut expenses enough to meet the cap, considering that we’re running the jail in line with all the criteria that the Department of Corrections demands?” he said. “This is not a problem with Piscataquis County — it’s statewide.”

 Another change Lizotte pointed out is that county jail budgets will no longer be a separate entity, but have to be integrated into the regular county budgets. He predicted that some people are going to be upset when they see the figures, but it will show “the true cost of running the jail. The expenses have always been there, but they didn’t show up because so much of it was controlled by the state.”

 Commissioner James White said that many costs associated with corrections are due to “unfunded mandates like the training requirements. In addition, you have part-time employees working full time to fill in the gaps, often accumulating overtime as well. At some point, there needs to be some rebellion against these mandates.”

 Piscataquis County also has a high turnover of corrections officers and dispatchers who often leave for higher-paying jobs elsewhere in the state.

 Lizotte said that since the funding formula is a “state-created problem, we can only hope they eventually fix it.”

 The next county commissioners’ meeting is set for Tuesday, July 21 at 8:30 a.m.