Two of Lincoln County’s top law enforcement officials disagreed Tuesday over possible state funding cuts for the Two Bridges Regional Jail.
Jail administrator Marc Westrum told the county commissioners Tuesday he opposed state plans use some $400,000 to fund state programs associated with the administration of board of corrections.
Sheriff Todd Brackett disagreed. He said state plans to fund several administrative programs, including video conferencing for two counties, was a proper use of the $400,000.
The squabble is all over money. In 2010, Two Bridges Regional Jail operated on a budget of about $6.8 million. About 5.5 million was funded by Lincoln and Sagadahoc county taxpayers. The balance, $1.3 million, was funded by the state.
The State Board of Corrections, the body that is responsible for funding some of the Two Bridges facility, is currently considering proposals to fund the 2011 budget for all state county jails.
The eleven state jails asked for $6.6 million in state support. Two Bridges, which houses inmates from Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties, plus inmates from Waldo county and other state prisoners, requested $1.5 million.
In a series of moves, Westrum said the corrections board slashed the total of all eleven county jail requests from $6.6 million down to $3.5 million. This cut means the money available to fund Two Bridges was slashed from $1.5 million to $948,000.
Westrum was red faced when he criticized the corrections board proposed funding cuts. He said the first thing the board did was to take $400,000 off the top of the total $3.5 million available for state programs.
This included $25,000 for a corrections employee, $70,000 for another corrections manager, and $100,000 for administrative programs including one to hire a consultant to consider having one medical services provider for the whole state, Westrum said.
Another $100,000 is earmarked to fund video conferencing in Piscataquis and Hancock counties, he said.
Brackett, in an earlier appearance before the commissioners, defended the corrections board plans to strip $400,000 from the money requested by local jails.
“Is video conferencing (equipment) purchasing a county (taxpayer) cost or one that is/should be paid for by the state or the judiciary?” asked commissioner Bill Blodgett.
Brackett told Blodgett that the expense is proper because video conferencing equipment saves county funds when deputies do not have to transport inmates to court hearings. It is a unified system under the law, he said.
Brackett defended the state corrections board fiscal plans saying the law benefits all state taxpayers.
Blodgett was not happy with Brackett’s defense of the state officials.
“We are all one big happy family?” said Blodgett.
Despite the critical comment, Bracket did not back down. “We can fuss about it, but that is the law,” said Brackett.
“We all pay taxes. I don’t want to debate the law with you,” he added.
Westrum said the state corrections board’s cuts would seriously hamper his ability to operate the Two Bridges Jail.
“They (state officials) say we have to take inmates but they won’t give us the money to operate with. There is no way we can do that,” he said.
Westrum said the lack of state funding could require staff reductions, flat funding for jail workers salaries and declining to accept inmates from other communities.
Westrum told commissioners the solution might be to stop taking state assigned inmates.
“Maybe we should padlock the sally port when the busses arrive with (state assigned) inmates,” he told commissioners.
