Jail medication dispensing to be carried out by corrections officers

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Several months after the Piscataquis County Jail failed a Maine Department of Corrections inspection, everything is set after a recent visit.

Department officials visited the Dover-Foxcroft facility for the day the week prior, Sheriff Robert Young told the Piscataquis County Commissioners during a Tuesday morning meeting. 

“We’re set except we’re working through an issue,” Young said. “If you recall we had hired and had for a couple of years a medications manager and we’re going to have to dispense with that, and that leaves us with two options, either hire a nurse to work full-time or go back to corrections officers doing that.”

Moving forward corrections officers will be the ones to distribute inmate medications after this method was previously discontinued.

“But other than that we are in good shape and moving forward,” Young said.

He said the jail medication statute allows for this to be done by corrections officers but a CNA would not be able to do so.

“It’s the way the two laws butt heads,” the sheriff said.

The Department of Corrections ordered the Piscataquis County Jail to stop taking inmates and move boarded inmates to their original facilities on Aug. 5 after the jail failed an inspection.

The state’s decision to stop operations was made with a “heavy hand,” Young told the Bangor Daily News earlier this month. The inspection report had inaccurate information about a key medical issue cited in it and mischaracterized another issue, he said.

“Our jail operations were not dangerous, nor, in my opinion, did they require this heavy hand from the state. There was no crisis,” Young said.

It was the first time the Department of Corrections has threatened to close a Maine correctional facility due to a failed inspection, Deputy Commissioner Anthony Cantillo said previously.

The sheriff’s office submitted a corrective action plan Aug. 7 and then implemented and made adjustments to be in-line with the department’s requirements, Young said. Young provided the Bangor Daily News with a copy of the corrective action plan.

For decades the jail operated on the same system to manage medications, the plan said. The inspection flagged that a prescription for one inmate was used to provide medication to three people, as well as inaccurate counts of medications that are controlled substances.

In other business, County Manager Michael Williams said he has been calling the governor’s office about the process to fill the open District 3 county commissioners position.

Wayne Erikkinen, R-Harfords Point resigned earlier in the summer after serving more than two terms as a commissioner representing the Greenville and Brownville areas. Erkinnen was reelected on the November 2024 ballot as the only candidate listed for District 3.

Williams has been calling Augusta for about a week, asking if the resignation letter has been received and what to do next. “I think I am on day seven or eight today,” he said, having also emailed.

Commissioner Paul Davis said Williams should call Sen. Stacey Guerin, R-Glenburn and ask her to look into the matter.

Later in the meeting Dover-Foxcroft resident Eric Boothroyd asked about the process to fill the vacant seat, believing the Piscataquis County Republicans would offer nominees for Gov. Janet Mills.

“We have several people who have put their names in the hat,” Commissioners Chair Andy Torbett said.

He explained the local party will caucus — residents of District 3 who participated in the countywide caucus in the last election — to vote on which name or names they would like to send to the governor and then an appointment will be made.

The person will serve until the first of the new year and then a special election will be held. 

“They would have to campaign again, so it’s actually a short time to fill,” Torbett said. “Right now we are just waiting on the governor’s office.”

Boothroyd asked when was the last time the county had an audit, referencing financial problems in Washington County’s government.

“They are ongoing all the time,” Williams responded, saying one was conducted with the recent jail inspection.

The county manager is working on an updated balance sheet to present to the budget advisory committee as the group is in the midst of its meetings.

“My philosophy has been don’t use up designated fund balance money unless you know you’ve got it,” Williams said. 

Bonuses for county employees during the pandemic was the only time Williams can recall using fund balance monies, a one-time rather than annual expense.

ARPA funds were used for HVAC upgrades on the county campus, so this did not need to come out of the regular county and Unorganized Territory budgets.

“Once that money’s gone, it leaves a big hole in your budget,” Williams said. “I feel pretty good about where we’re at.”

Piscataquis County Emergency Management Agency Director Debra Hamlin mentioned a seaplane crashed on Sept. 6 on Moosehead Lake near Beaver Cove during the annual International Seaplane Fly-In.

Pilot Barry Holtz, 76, of Fairport, New York. was attempting to land his Grumman G-44A Widgeon, a five-person amphibious aircraft, on the lake when he crashed.

Holtz, who was the only person on board, escaped through a rear door after the main doors would not open. A boater on the lake pulled the pilot from the water. He was transported to the Northern Light CA Dean Hospital in Greenville for facial injuries. 

“Dispatch did an excellent job, they were inundated with calls from the public,” Hamlin said, even late into the night, and they updated her so she could pass along information on the incident.

The seaplane has since been removed from a depth of nearly 130 feet. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

“We’ve been hit with a bunch of burglaries lately which is unusual,” Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Todd Lyford said. “We have had many camp burglaries. They are cleaning out. They are not just taking expensive items, they are literally collecting it all.”

These cases are under investigation.

The Bangor Daily News’ Marie Weidmayer and Wendy Watkins contributed to this story.