AUGUSTA, Maine - While lawmakers at the State House struggle to find consensus on a plan to address funding shortfalls at the county jails, Gov. Paul LePage is moving forward with an effort to end the state's role in managing them.
The governor wants to redirect funds allocated to the Maine Board of Corrections to provide pay raises for state prison guards. State officials say conditions at Maine's understaffed correctional facilities are becoming increasingly more dangerous.
Effectively rendered defunct by Gov. Paul LePage's refusal to appoint new members to fill vacant seats, the embattled state Board of Corrections is now threatened with the loss of about $6.5 million in its operations budget. The governor wants to transfer the funds to raise salaries and, hopefully, attract more guards to fill vacant positions at the state's prisons.
LePage has complained that there is no accountability from the counties for the millions of dollars the state sends their way, and that it's time to end that relationship. But Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce told members of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee that most Maine sheriffs have been equally frustrated with the Corrections Board experience. But he and other critics also say that the state cannot simply pull its funding now without a transition plan in place.
"Every sheriff is interested in getting out of the failed marriage, but we don't want our property taxpayers to experience sticker shock when returned back to the counties," Joyce said.
One legislative committee is looking at a bill that would eliminate the Corrections Board while providing $14 million in state funding to help the counties reinstate the former jail funding system. LePage says he doesn't care if the operation of the county jails is controlled by the counties, or if they are taken overly entirely by the state. But Maine Commissioner of Corrections Joseph Fitzgerald told members of the Appropriations Committee that a state takeover is not on his list of priorities.
"I don't have a vested interest in trying to take over the counties - I've been very clear with the sheriffs about that," Fitzgerald said. "The reason being, I think there would be such incredible resistance - the sheriffs are unanimously opposed to the state taking over. We would watch it play out for 10 years and at the end of it all, I don't think it would be successful."
Given those options, Fitzgerald says it makes sense to support LePage's solution to a very real problem that is facing the state now: the lack of a compensation package that can attract new corrections staff and retain those officers who are already there. According to corrections staff, there are currently 50 corrections officer vacancies statewide. Fitzgerald says the state has to respond.
"The reason I'm here today is because I support these workers who are behind me and I support our system," Fitzgerald said. "I'm not looking for big screen TVs and Jacuzzis and new buildings, I'm looking to get them more money. There's nothing in my best interest to have this many vacancies. Somebody's going to get hurt, if not killed. It's dangerous."
Will Towers, a 29-year Department of Corrections employee, encouraged lawmakers to approve LePage's plan to raise salaries for state corrections officers. He says two or three staffers have left the Maine Correctional Center in Windham for better jobs, including one who went to Wal-Mart making more than $18 dollars an hour.
"It's pathetic when you think that you're serving the people of the state of Maine by working for the Department of Corrections taking care of the worst of the worst, and your starting pay is $13.89 an hour - it's sad," Towers said.
"These stories we're hearing from the state corrections officers are heartbreaking - to say the least - but this is the wrong way to fund their raises, we believe," said Rosemary Kulow.
As the executive director of the Maine County Commissioners Association, Kulow says her organization has real concerns about the impact of any state solution that throws all of the funding back onto the counties -- which she says serve as a safety net for overcrowding in the system.