Davis submits bill to repeal jail consolidation
By Mike Lange
Staff Writer
AUGUSTA — State Sen. Paul Davis (R-Sangerville) said that he is confident about his chances of getting a bill passed that repeals the mandatory jail consolidation that took effect in 2008.
Davis’ announcement came shortly after the Board of Corrections effectively dissolved last week. Waldo County Commissioner Amy Fowler resigned from the board on Jan. 13 and Executive Director Ryan Thornell announced that he’s leaving Jan. 28. Mallory Pollard, a financial analyst, resigned last month and Gov. Paul LePage said that he has no intention of filling the vacancies.
“Once this bill passes, the counties will be back in charge of the jail,” Davis told the Observer. “They managed to do it for 188 years and there’s no reason why they can’t do it today.”
The Sangerville Republican also said that his bill, still in the draft stages, will require that counties will continue to receive the “same level of state funding. However, any additional costs will have to be picked up by the county.”
He also added that fees for boarding federal prisoners, which had to be turned over to the BOC for the past several years, will be kept by the counties.
Davis said that the state’s attempt to consolidate county jails was a good example of “bigger is not necessarily better. When the state can’t afford to fund a program, who gets hurt when they fall behind?”
Davis also said that he’s pleased that LePage supports dismantling the BOC. “He mentioned his displeasure with the system in his inaugural address,” Davis said.
Piscataquis County Manager Tom Lizotte agreed. “The death of the Board of Corrections has clearly been foretold. When all of the BOC staff resigns because they see no future in the system, when the board itself can no longer conduct business because it does not have a quorum, and when Gov. LePage is strongly opposed to continuing with jail consolidation, the handwriting is on the wall,” Lizotte said. “Return of local control of the jails to the counties seems the only logical alternative.”
Lizotte said that the county commissioners are in favor of returning control of jail operations to the county “as long as this move does not result in a sudden, steep increase in county jail property taxes as the existing jail property tax cap is removed. We welcome the provisions in Sen. Davis’s bill that will retain the same level of state funding and that will allow our county to retain boarding revenue from federal prisoners. That critically important revenue will provide the necessary financial ‘soft landing’ the county needs as we make the transition back to local control of jail operations.”
Lizotte added that Sheriff John Goggin and his team at the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office “did an excellent job of running the county jail before the Board of Corrections was established. The county commissioners are confident the Sheriff’s Office will continue to run a tight ship following the demise of the BOC.”
State Sen. Stan Gerzofsky (D-Brunswick), the ranking Democrat on the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, told the Lewiston Sun Journal last week that it may be time to return local control of the jails to the county. However, he also suggested some county governments were not appropriately using state funds.
He said that one of the original reasons behind the corrections system consolidation was to “stop the counties from using the jails as cash cows, which is what they were doing.”
However, Piscataquis County officials pointed out that they have used unbudgeted income from federal prisoners’ boarding fees to make capital improvements at the jail including roof repairs, a new heating system and upgraded equipment for the communications center.
Goggin said that after the jail underwent an extensive renovation several years ago, the boarding fees essentially paid for the entire cost “and not the taxpayers.”
Davis’ bill will more than likely be referred to the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee within a few weeks.