The state Board of Corrections has approved a plan to save $1.4 million by changing how three county jails are used.
The Waldo County Jail will be a regional re-entry center, where prisoners who are likely to re-offend get intensive services to reduce that risk. Waldo County's inmates will be housed at the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset.
The Oxford and Franklin county jails will be booking stations, holding inmates for no more than three days before sending them to other facilities.
The plan takes effect today.
Inmates who would have been held in the Oxford jail in South Paris will be sent to the Cumberland County Jail in Portland or the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.
Franklin County inmates will be sent to Somerset County.
The Waldo County plan will save about $900,000, and reducing the functions of the other two jails will save about $450,000, the state board said. One of the goals of consolidating state prisons and county jails under a single board of corrections was to slow the growth of corrections spending.
"As a result of designing a better system and reducing costs, three county jails have undergone major mission changes," said Neale Duffett, a Portland defense attorney who chairs the corrections board.
The board was created to consolidate the state corrections system, and it has come up with four service regions.
The new Waldo County facility, called the Midcoast Regional Re-entry Center, is a pilot program that could be replicated in the other regions if successful.
"We see this re-entry center as being a transition back to the community out of the state system," said Associate Corrections Commissioner Denise Lord, who serves on the board's corrections working group. "Without the right intervention, you've basically created a revolving door."
The state has pre-release centers now, but they don't focus on inmates who are most likely to reoffend, Lord said.
Making Waldo County responsible only for the booking center saved nearly $1 million because the county had far more inmates than space at the 36-bed jail and was paying to board them elsewhere, Lord said.
The Oxford and Franklin county jails are relatively small and outdated. Changing their roles eliminates means they don't have to pay for corrections workers -- just small staffs to take booking photos, fingerprints and to contact bail commissioners.
Oxford County inmates held pending trial will be sent to Androscoggin County, and those who have been sentenced to jail will go to Cumberland County. Oxford County's jail is about 40 minutes from Androscoggin's and about 75 minutes from the Cumberland County facility.
The counties will have to transport inmates to court appearances, but the reduction in corrections staff will more than offset any transportation increase, officials said.
"It's always cheaper to transport than it is to house," said Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion. "You're just moving inmates as opposed to providing them food service, actual housing and medical service."
The corrections board is also exploring ways to make transportation more efficient. For instance, Aroostook County now boards some inmates in York County, where there is excess capacity. In the future, the state will decide where to house excess inmates and will try to find closer accommodations.
The board also will explore whether video arraignments, which are used in York County, can reduce transportation needs.
The new corrections system is consolidating specialized services to save money as well.
"In essence, Oxford, Androscoggin and Cumberland counties is a correctional service region," Dion said. "In that correctional service region, we would become the 24-7 medical facility. ... If we can centralize health care services, you're going to achieve some efficiencies."
The state took over responsibility for county jails last...
Reader comments
Click here to view or add comments on this story
Were you interviewed for this story? If so, please fill out our accuracy form