AUGUSTA, Maine — The good news for Maine's county jails is that the state has sent out just over $12 million in funding. The bad news is that's not enough money to cover the costs the 15 facilities say they're facing this fiscal year.
Some sheriffs say they'll have to ask lawmakers in Augusta for additional funding in January. But the burden could fall taxpayers at the county level.
Meeting with lawmakers earlier this week, Maine Department of Corrections Commissioner Joseph Fitzpatrick confirmed that the financial relief sought by the state's 15 county jail administrators was finally on its way.
"We were able to disburse the $12.2 million and not delay any payments to the counties," Fitzpatrick says.
But that's about $2 million short of what Maine's sheriffs had hoped to receive. And because the way the jail funding is overseen has changed, it's not clear where the extra money will come from.
The state this year did away with the Board of Corrections, which was established under Gov. John Baldacci as part of a jail consolidation effort. Gov. Paul LePage said the board system was unworkable, and that the sheriffs lacked accountability for the state dollars they received.
But some corrections officials, including Scott Ferguson, who runs the corrections service center, say the law that dissolved the board could benefit from some clarity around what happens next.
"There's a lot of ambiguity as to what the deal is," Ferguson says. "That's what the AG sort of has to hash through and I think that's what they need to bring back and discuss with each of the committees involved."
For example, Ferguson says that under the old system, counties that agreed to ease overcrowding at other jails could collect additional money from those counties for each inmate they accepted. He points out that there is language in the new law that says counties can work out mutually agreeable terms to accept each other's prisoners.
"There's no incentive for them to do that, they can't get paid for taking those inmates," Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry says.
He says that's why his Two Bridges Regional Jail, which also serves Lincoln County, has stopped accepting prisoners from other counties. He says the sheriff in Somerset County is following a similar policy and that jail administrators in Cumberland and Waldo counties may also be reviewing their boarding policies.
Merry, who formerly served as chair of the state corrections board, says the Legislature has failed to adequately address the needs of the jails as they transition back to county control.
"The Maine Sheriffs Association in addition to the Maine County Commissioners Association will be making a presentation to the Legislature," Merry says.
But one lawmaker, a longtime member of the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, says jails are not the only victims of shrinking state support.
"Well I don't think we gave schools the full increases that they needed or a lot of other areas of state government," says Sen. Stan Gerzofsky.
Gerzofsky, a Brunswick Democrat, says there are several factors, including fiscal restraints, that are contributing to the situation faced by the jails. There's also the fact that some lawmakers want to disentangle themselves from county jail problems, and that the governor is not inclined to invest any more money in them.
And that, says Gerzofsky, means that the counties will probably be on their own.
"The counties can now look at their budgets and see where they can trim a little, but understanding that they can start raising taxes," he says. "My understanding in speaking with several counties — mine being one of them — is that most of the counties are going to raise taxes."
Nevertheless, Merry says he and other sheriffs plan to bring their concerns to the Legislature in January.