The Multi-County Jail Authority that operates Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset is delivering an ultimatum to the state. The Jail Authority is demanding more state money to cover expected increased staffing costs before the state starts sending more inmates as planned.
Currently the jail houses 120 inmates and has the right amount of staff to handle that census, but the state Dept. of Corrections (DOC) wants to send 60-80 more of its own plus inmates from county jails changing their mission like Waldo County Jail, according to Correctional Administrator Mark Westrum.
“If they’re not willing to provide staff, then we don’t want their inmates,” Westrum said Tuesday. “That’s the bottom line.”
Westrum said he does not want to put his staff in jeopardy, knowing that the jail would require more staff because of heightened security needs and push the jail well below national corrections standards.
“If we take this much more in, it’s going to cost more in personnel,” he said.
Jail authority members made a unanimous decision last week at their regular monthly meeting to put their sentiments in the form of a resolution to the DOC.
Their action came after the DOC notified Two Bridges last week that Waldo County Jail would be releasing its 50 inmates and sending them to Two Bridges so that it could start renovations for the new mission the DOC has assigned it. The jail will become a 70-hour holding facility instead of a regular county jail.
The jail presented a convincing PowerPoint analysis of what would happen with expanded population and each segment of the jail’s operation would be affected exponentially.
“We’re going to present the PowerPoint and tell it like it is,” Westrum said.
More in-place security will become a necessity because of more visitors, more nurses, counselors and other contacted individuals going in and out of the jail. The more inmates, the more food the jail will have to serve, resulting in an increase in cafeteria staff, he said.
Everything has to increase in operations including central control, which already has become overloaded with responsibilities. Most of all, more inmates in any given housing pod will necessitate more corrections officers and personnel because more inmates will have to be transported here and there for court appearance, work details, and transfers, he said.
Currently, the state pays only $22 per day to house its inmates at Two Bridges while the jail gets paid $92 per day for federal prisoners, according to Westrum.
“It’s really a stretch,” Westrum said. “They put us between a rock and a hard place.”
Finances at the jail have been iffy because of about a $1.4 million decline in expected revenue. In the first place, Two Bridges expected to receive 21 federal inmates but only received 15 as income for the 2008-2009 fiscal budget.
Because of the dip in revenue, Westrum said the jail took in the inmates from the state, which lately also includes county jail inmates from overcrowded facilities like Kennebec County Jail and others from which the DOC decides to send.
Until recently, the DOC issued a variance for Kennebec County Jail allowing it to take in more than its designated capacity, for instance.
Now under the new so-called “unified system” the state has instituted, the mission of all the jails (with the possible exception of Two Bridges) will change like Waldo County Jail, which will also serve as a re-entry center for the Midcoast area and house state and county inmates preparing to leave the system, getting them ready to return to society.
Oxford and Franklin County Jails will change over from full service jails to become solely 72-hour holding facilities for sentenced and pretrial inmates only.
County administrator on changes
County Administrator John O’Connell addressed his concerns about the change of use, downsizing or closing of facilities before the Board of Correction on June 5. First of all, he said, “The purpose of the (new) statute was not to force closures of facilities but was to create operational and financial efficiencies and slow the rate of growth in corrections costs.”
O’Connell complained about the lack of adequate funding for the Board of Correction not allowing it to have its own staff.
“Accordingly it remains over-reliant on staff seconded from the Dept. of Corrections,” he said. “Compounding this imbalance is the fact that the statute allows the commissioner of corrections to allocate all inmates within the system without consultation.”
O’Connell considers the major mission change for jails flawed.
“The economic rationales are suspect because the economic impact on the individual counties, their communities and affected individuals has been largely ignored, the public input process is perfunctory, and many mission change savings are merely cost shifting,” he said.
His concerns also include the lack of solid numbers and the fact that counties will have their cap figures reviewed in September. In addition, he called the lack of a capital reserve account troubling.
Speaking about Two Bridges, he said, “The population cap has been increased to 225 without increased staffing. Realistic long range planning is impossible in an environment such as this.”
Further comments about the changes included recommendations for a two-year moratorium on any future changes at a given institution, more attention to public input from all those affected in the system, including the inmates and families and from communities and counties affected economically.
“The rush to meet the implementation deadline of July 1 with so many issues unresolved is disturbing,” O’Connell said. “This is not a controlled change so the consequences are likely to be unexpected.”
