The Maine Board of Corrections unanimously elected Two Bridges Regional Jail Correctional Administrator Col. Mark Westrum its chairman Sept. 28.
“It’s quite an honor,” Westrum said. The Sept. 28 meeting was his first since his appointment to the Board by Gov. Paul LePage.
Westrum, of Bath, brings ideas and a strong will for reform to the position.
“I firmly believe the Maine Board of Corrections needs a new vision and change in philosophy,” Westrum wrote in a July 26 letter to Director of Boards and Commissions Michael Hersey.
The former four-term Sagadahoc County sheriff plans to inject “a little more creativity” into Board of Corrections (BOC) operations. He wants to shift focus from “micromanaging” budgets to the larger work of addressing recidivism rates – what he calls “the revolving door” of Maine’s corrections system.
This work includes the maintenance and expansion of pre-trial programs, jail programs and re-entry programs, all designed to help the former inmate leave “better than when they came in.”
Incarceration alone, Westrum knows, “isn’t necessarily the answer to people’s problems.”
Ideally, a former inmate should “understand the harm they’ve caused” the victims of their crimes, but also understand the important of holding a job and becoming a contributing member of society, he said.
Lower recidivism rates and, in turn, lower jail populations – “That’s where we’re going to find significant savings to run our corrections system,” Westrum said.
“It’s time to change the course” of the Board of Corrections, Westrum said. “I’m very hopeful that’s where they want to go.”
Immediate issues facing the Board of Corrections include hiring decisions after the recent resignation of former executive director Kate Snyder and managing a LePage directive to cut $335,000 from the Department of Corrections’ annual budget.
The election adds another demanding volunteer project to a long list for Westrum. In addition to his duties at the jail, he also serves as the president of the Maine Jail Administrators Association. He chairs or is a member of at least a half-dozen associations, committees and other bodies in law enforcement, education and municipal government.
His public service resume includes periods as the president of the Maine Sheriffs’ Association (1999-2001, 2003) and the first chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lincoln and Sagadahoc Jail Authority (2003-2007).
He has been the correctional administrator at Two Bridges Regional Jail – designated one of Maine’s four “flagship” jails – since Aug. 2008.
Westrum works many evenings until after 10 p.m. and his work often stretches into the weekend. His vision for corrections makes the commitment worthwhile. “I really believe in the system and where we should take it,” he said.
Sheridan Bond, the chairman of the Lincoln County Commissioners, congratulated Westrum at a Sept. 29 public hearing on the county’s 2012 budget.
“We are very honored,” Bond, who also serves as a jail authority board member, said.
Westrum “has had a tremendous amount of experience in handling prisoners and operating jails,” Bond said, calling the administrator “the foremost leader in inmate diversion in the state of Maine.”
The appointment “gives [Lincoln County] a better place on that committee that we have not had since that committee was put into place,” Bond said.
Edgecomb Selectman Stuart Smith also serves on the committee. “Our voice will be heard there,” Bond said.
