Board of Corrections chief defends policies, but admits funding shortfall

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    AUGUSTA — The executive director of the Maine Board of Corrections has defended his organization, saying that some sheriff’s departments are concerned about agency rules that haven’t been implemented yet.

    Ryan Thornell acknowledged, however, that some county jails could face a funding shortfall this year, forcing the BOC to ask the Legislature for more money. “We know that in this fiscal year (ending June 30, 2015, we’re going to need another $2.5 million to balance the budget,” Thornell told the Observer. “That’s my biggest concern. We anticipate that some jails – maybe up to three – will have used up all their surplus funds, so they’ll need more money.”
    Piscataquis County Sheriff John Goggin and Jail Administrator Bob Harmon told the county commissioners at a recent meeting that the BOC’s funding formula has been a problem since the agency was formed in 2008. He charged that the agency “puts a carrot out there on a string, saying they would cap (our budget) at $878,000 and pick up the remainder if we’d dance to their tune.” The actual cost of running the 42-bed jail is about $1.5 million, Harmon said.
    But Thornell said that the purpose of the BOC when it was formed in 2009 was to have a uniform jail system with equal standards, training and financial oversight “not 15 or 16 different policies for each county jail.”
    He said that the only problem with the system is that the state “hasn’t stepped up with the funding we needed to meet our goals.”
    Thornell said that some of the mandates that the local law enforcement officials referred to “haven’t even been implemented yet. The Legislature passed the bills during the last session, so we’re in the process of developing agency rules. That might take until spring.”
    The changes in the statutes include:
    establishing a certificate of need process and procedures for the review and approval of any future public or private capital correctional construction projects and financing alternatives;
    to establish standards for the county jail budget format, county jail budget process and county jail budget submission; and
    to establish standards and procedures for analyzing and establishing staffing qualifications and levels at county jail facilities.
    Another concern Harmon brought up at the commissioners’ meeting was the new requirement that part-time corrections officers must complete 200 hours of training — the same as a regular, full-time guard. “Who can afford to take six weeks off their regular job to train for a $12 an hour part-time job?” Harmon asked.
    But Thornell said that this policy didn’t originate from the BOC, but from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. “I understand their concern, but we have no control over training requirements,” he explained.
    The executive director also acknowledged the difficulty in managing available cell space with the inmate population in a large, sparsely-populated state like Maine.
    As of Dec. 8, there were 1,836 inmates incarcerated at county jails with a total budgeted capacity of 1,814. “When we implemented the budgeted capacity at county jails, those numbers often didn’t have the best-practices logic behind them,” Thornell acknowledged. “So now we’re running into jails with closed pods that don’t have enough funding to open them up, and others with extra beds. But they might be at the other end of the state.”
    Thornell said that by and large, the counties “are working more collaboratively than they used to. There’s more of a willingness to help out.”
    Thornell also said the lack of federal prisoners in Maine county jails has also caused some financial heartburn. “But for some reason, there aren’t as many federal prisoners anywhere in the country, not just Maine,” he explained.
    While he cautioned that county jails “really shouldn’t count on federal boarding fees to balance their budget,” he acknowledged that counties like Piscataquis have done so in the past – successfully. “Statewide, the federal boarding fees are down by $600,000 this year,” Thornell said.
    The BOC chief urged the county law enforcement agencies to be patient “and give the new rules a chance to work. Once the Legislature realizes that it takes a significant amount of money to accomplish these goals, we’ll be in better shape.”