AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine's county jail system will undergo yet another change in its state funding system. The new funding plan, approved by the Legislature this week, does away with the state Board of Corrections, and gives control over the state's share of jail funding to the Department of Corrections. But some observers believe this is the first step in a transition to returning all funding responsibility for the jails back to the 16 counties.
The new jail funding system would give Gov. Paul LePage at least one thing he had wanted: the demise of the state Board of Corrections. LePage believes that the board, created under the Baldacci administration, has failed to keep costs under control. LePage this year refused to appoint any new members, rendering it incapable of functioning, and he made clear his feelings on the board back in February.
"What you've done is you've given the control of the jails to the sheriffs, the counties, and you're telling the state, 'You're paying the bill and you can't do anything about it,' " LePage said. "That's just not going to work. That's like giving my ex-wife my paycheck."
The new corrections legislation, LD 186, which the Legislature crafted to resolve the stand-off, grants the Department of Corrections the authority to administer the state's contribution to the cost of the county jails, about 15 percent of the overall operating costs of $80 million a year.
But Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton says even though the state pays only a small share of the costs, it still maintains significant control over the jails and the costs of operation. "Two-hundred-sixty-seven jail standards that are set by the Department of Corrections that affect the running of our facilities," Morton says. "The state has a lot of control over how we run our facilities."
DOC inspectors, for example, concluded at one point that the trash cans used at the Penobscot jail did not meet the state requirements and had to be replaced. Morton says that cost several thousand dollars that had not been budgeted. And Morton says bigger funding issues continue for his jail, which will have to start paying other jails to house its excess inmates.
"That boarding rate, depending on who you ask and when you ask, could for Penobscot County - it could be anywhere between $600,000 and $1.5 million for boarding," Morton says.
Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty, the president of the Maine Sheriffs Association, says the allocation in the state budget is less, by millions, than what's needed to run all of the jails without triggering boarding fees.
"It will require some of those sending facilities to maintain very high, inflated populations in their facility or others," Liberty says, "like I have done in the past, asking law enforcement officers to not make those misdemeanor, nonviolent discretionary arrests."
But such actions are considered a stopgap. County administrators say the state will have to do better than its $12 million funding for the jails. Rosemary Kulow, executive director of the Maine County Commissioners Association, says the jails will have to go back to the Legislature at some point for more money.
"There's most likely going to be the need to request supplemental funding next January, because this amount is not sufficient to fund the jails in their current operation," Kulow says.
Such a request would not be much of a surprise to lawmakers. Rep. Peggy Rotundo, a Lewiston Democrat who co-chairs the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, says it's important to remember that the whole reason for the creation of the state Board of Corrections was to bring more efficiency to the way county jails are run.
"One of the concerns about sending this back to the counties is that these efficiencies will not be found," Rotundo says. "They will come back with a request, I am sure, for additional funding."
Despite the continuing concerns over funding, Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton says he supports the legislation abolishing the Board and giving more authority to the DOC.
The Maine County Commissioners Association board, meanwhile, will meet next week to consider the implications of the new jails legislation and the funding levels in the state budget.
