With the Maine Board of Corrections in turmoil, the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners and Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett spoke about the uncertain future of the county jail system at the Tuesday, Jan. 20 commissioners meeting. Numerous factors outside of Lincoln County’s control were driving high inmate counts and increased costs for county jails, Brackett said.
Despite the inability of the Board of Corrections to conduct business, county jails were still mandated to take in prisoners from across the state, Brackett said. As of Jan. 16, Two Bridges Regional Jail housed 175 inmates – 88 of those inmates were from outside of Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties.
The 87 inmates listed from Lincoln and Sagadahoc, are not necessarily residents of the counties, Brackett said. If inmates are charged with a crime while at the facility, Lincoln County gets geographic credit for them, Brackett said.
According to Brackett, 11 inmates at Two Bridges were charged with crimes committed recently at the facility, which included trafficking in prison contraband and assault. The inmates that were from out of county are now counted as Lincoln County prisoners.
Brackett listed numerous state-wide practices that were bloating the county jail system. All prisoners charged with probation violations get sent to county jail, Brackett said. The majority of individuals arrested by the state police, the largest law enforcement unit in Maine, also get sent to county jails.
The practice of concurrent sentences, which keeps inmates below the nine-month threshold for serving time in a state facility, is another factor driving high inmate counts at Two Bridges Regional Jail, Brackett said.
Patients at Riverview, a state mental health facility, that commit a crime while at the facility, also, are directed to county jails. Increased prisoners result in increased costs, Brackett said – costs that the state has been reluctant to pay.
According to Brackett, the Maine Sheriff’s Association is working to develop concrete data to present to legislators to educate them about the factors driving costs at county jails. “As the BOC unravels, I’d like to have documented information about the factors driving costs in jails that are outside of the jails’ control,” Brackett said.
Despite the Board of Corrections inability to conduct business, the remaining members of the board, the Board of Corrections executive director, and sheriff’s from across Maine, were traveling to Augusta later in the day to lobby the Appropriations Committee to approve a $2.5 million supplemental request for the Board of Corrections. Brackett said he intended to join them.
The formula to distribute the supplemental budget had already been developed prior to the resignations that are preventing the Board of Corrections from conducting business, Brackett said. While the Board of Corrections will still be making its third and fourth quarter payments to county jails, those payments are not enough to cover the costs incurred by over-crowded county jails, Brackett said.
Two Bridges Regional Jail is in good shape financially compared to other county jails in Maine and will be facing a negligible short-fall at the end of the fiscal year. Other county jails, however, will be struggling to make payroll come March if the supplemental budget is not approved, Brackett said.
“I, for one, would like to be standing in the audience saying this is a real situation,” Brackett said. “We need the money or the jails will crash.”
