By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — The Aroostook County Jail is in a precarious position as money to keep the building running, and its employees paid, is rapidly running out.
Aroostook County Sheriff Darrell Crandall said the County needs an additional $782,000 to cover operating expenses through June 30. The jail’s operating funds will essentially run out in March and jail operators do not have any reserve funds they can utilize to cover that gap.
Aroostook County is not the only jail system that has dwindling funds. The Cumberland County Jail is facing a $596,000 shortfall, while Penobscot County Jail needs $563,000; York County Jail, $396,000 and Androscoggin County Jail $151,000.
While the ACJ has been able to reduce its travel costs of shipping inmates to other facilities by increasing capacity at the Houlton jail, the extra inmates have resulted in a need for additional workers to staff the jail, as well as an increase in its food budget.
“Everybody knows it costs more to run your home now,” Crandall said. “We have a home with 100 people, so our costs increase exponentially.”
Aroostook County administrator Doug Beaulieu, said the budget shortfall is not a new problem. Last year, the ACJ received a “kicker payment” of $691,065 in supplemental funds to balance its budget. In fact, a supplement payment has been necessary for the past few years, as the state has regularly under-funded the jail.
“We are going to do everything we can to secure ‘soft landing’ money from the legislature,” Beaulieu said. “That is certainly consistent with what the Maine Sheriff’s Association is advocating for. We will have phone calls to our delegation and legislature leaders seeking these funds.”
The reason for the additional funds at the ACJ stem from an increase in the overall inmate population averaging about 15 more inmates per day; increased overtime, employee medical, inmate medical, food and utility costs.
If the supplement funding is not authorized, the jail would be faced with two options, ask the taxpayers of Aroostook County to foot the bill or close the jail. If the jail were to close, the 90 average inmates would need to be housed elsewhere, along with about 70 other offenders in the community needing supervision or jail placement. Thirty-five staff members would also be laid off.
Last month, Ryan Thornell, executive director of the Board of Corrections, resigned from his post, along with two other board members, which essentially left the group without enough members to conduct business.
Governor Paul LePage has stated he does not plan to replace members on the BOC and has been historically opposed to providing additional funding to the county jails, Beaulieu said. In 2008, the state legislature placed control of the jail system with the Board of Corrections, with counties paying a set amount and the state picking up the rest. That system has struggled to be efficient since its inception and will likely be dissolved, with control going back to the individual counties.
“It will be a struggle to make things work financially, but we are going to have to find a way,” Beaulieu said. “We had control of the jails for over 170 years, on our own nickel, with very little funding from the state. So we certainly know how to do it. But it means the property tax payers would have to pick up the expense.”
Aroostook County taxpayers already pay $2.3 million under the county tax. The state has imposed limits on how much a county may tax, but Beaulieu said that cap limit would likely be lifted if control of the jails reverts back to individual counties.
Since its construction in 1889, the Aroostook County Jail has housed inmates who are either awaiting trials or sentencing or were involved in minor incidents. Back in 1991, the Aroostook County Jail was rated for 66 prisoners. A year ago, it was rated for 86 inmates (up from 72 in 2013), and today, the jail’s capacity is 123 inmates. For the most part, inmates are either awaiting trial or to be sentenced.
For 2014, the average daily population of inmates at the ACJ was 88, with a low of 70 in January and a high of 100 in November.
In years past, about 75-80 percent of the population were sentenced and doing their time, while 25 percent were waiting to go to court. Today, those numbers have flipped as about 20-25 percent of the total population is serving their time after being sentenced, while the rest are waiting a court appearance. Compounding the problem, the length of stay for those pre-trial inmates is unusually long for inmates of the Aroostook County Jail.
Editor’s Note: The appropriations committee gave initial approval to a supplemental budget bill (LD 234) that would help five county jails get through the end of June of this year…which is the end of the state fiscal year. That bill still requires the approval of the full legislature and the governor.
