Charleston prison cuts on hold until June 30
1/22/09 | 15 comments

Charleston prison cuts on hold until June 30


By Diana Bowley
BDN Staff
BANGOR DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO
George Peterson (left), plant maintenance engineer for Charleston Correctional Facility, and Capt. Doug Starbird, the facility’s security chief, walk outside the facility’s Dorm III last year.

CHARLESTON, Maine — A reprieve of six months has been given to 45 inmates who would have been relocated and to 15 employees whose jobs were to be eliminated at the Charleston Correctional Facility under Gov. John Baldacci’s jail consolidation plan.

Recognizing the importance of the restitution program offered at the minimum-security prison and the need for a long-range corrections plan, the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee searched for and found about $560,000 in cuts in other programs to keep the unit targeted for closure at Charleston in operation until June 30, the end of this fiscal year.

The Appropriations Committee accepted the committee’s plan Tuesday, according to Rep. Richard Sykes of Harrison, the Republican leader on the committee.

“It’s no additional cost. It’s a shifting of monies and they [the Appropriations Committee] felt that our justification and reason was appropriate and they’ve accepted that,” Sykes said Wednesday.

To help offset a $140 million shortfall in state revenues, the governor announced in December that he planned to close a dormitory at the Charleston facility and eliminate 15 local jobs. That move would mean the relocation of 45 of the 145 inmates housed there, Denise Lord, the Department of Corrections’ deputy commissioner, said last month. The changes at Charleston would save about $1 million a year, she said.

Overall, the governor’s proposed supplemental budget included a total reduction of 24 positions in corrections, Lord said. In addition to the positions at Charleston, the cuts included two probation officers, two juvenile community corrections posts and two positions in the office of advocacy.

According to Sykes, the governor is putting the proverbial cart before the horse. In essence, Sykes added, Baldacci is making decisions about closures or changes in the corrections system before the Board of Corrections — established last February to oversee correctional operations in Maine — has completed its long-range plan and recommendations.

“We charged them [the Board of Corrections] with the responsibility of coming up with a better way and a future plan to run the corrections system in a unified manner. Unfortunately, the governor’s supplemental budget supersedes that charge,” Sykes said. “I believe that we need to give the Board of Corrections an opportunity and time to come up with some suggestions and recommendations.” In the meantime, the committee has asked the board to “hurry up” and finish the long-range plan, he said.

Sykes said the committee heard from many people opposed to the Charleston cuts.

“The transitional unit at Charleston [is] an outstanding program,” Sykes said. He said the program, in which inmates provide volunteer work for communities and nonprofit organizations, helps prepare inmates for life after prison. Rather than give the inmates $50 and a new suit before they are released, the program gives them vocational and social skills, he said.

To find the savings to keep the Charleston unit open for the remainder of the fiscal year, the committee recommended the elimination of the Department of Corrections’ chief advocate and another advocate in Warren, where the Maine State Prison is located. Those positions also were targeted for elimination in Baldacci’s plan.

The committee also recommended the elimination of a department leadership training program, according to Sykes. About $65,000 was targeted from the Maine Emergency Management Agency’s stream monitoring program. The program, which is an early warning system for floods, has typically been funded entirely by the state. But now state funds will be matched by federal money, resulting in no program loss, Sykes said.

Charleston officials also came forward with a way to save $100,000, Sykes said. The prison runs on wood harvested by inmates on state property for the first and second shifts. The third shift has been heated with oil, but employees have offered to volunteer their time to keep that shift heated with wood.

“Through the goodness of some of the staff at the Charleston Correctional Facility, they are willing to volunteer to work that third shift to continue heating the entire facility 24 hours a day with wood,” Sykes said.

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Comments
15 comments on this item
On 1/22/09 at 4:56 AM, thekingofmaine wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

MAKE THEM BUILD THE GODDAMN BOAT LAUNCH

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On 1/22/09 at 7:53 AM, dkenzie77 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

aww sweet little baldy gave them more time, well baldy you only get so much time in office you arsehole. Kissing arse dont matter now

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On 1/22/09 at 8:05 AM, Robpott wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Lord says it will save 1 million a year. She's one of the people who does not have to worry about her job being deputy commissioner. By the way, how many deputy commissioners in state government do we have? Cut programs that don't work, like the governors office.

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On 1/22/09 at 9:37 AM, dkenzie77 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I agree with ya rob, denise says she wont lose her job she is safe. You know something we really dont even need a governor. He doestn do anything to help us. All he does is help his wallet

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On 1/22/09 at 10:01 AM, yillda wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

imy husband was ur there for awhile. He made his mistakes and he did his time to pay for them. While he was thee he learned a trade and now can say that he is qualified and get get a job. Had he not gone there he would still be doing the same things he was. I feel that by them closing the dorm down that it will make those people who have to be relocated to a different facility alot worse off. there is only one other min. security facility in the state. so if its full there then they send them to the maine state prison, where there is nothing for them but trouble. some of them started out at the prison and earned the right to be at a min security place. it was only a year and a half ago that baldy approved the opening of the dorm now all of a sudden they need to close it? whats the deal with that? i think they need to stop worrying about their selves and worry about the people that it effects

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On 1/22/09 at 10:20 AM, PabMainer wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

yillda....great success story in regards to how things should and can work...I am glad you and your hubby are doing well, keep up the good work...these are the kinds of reports people need to hear and lobby Augusta about in regards to spending tax payers' money where the most benefit affords....

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On 1/22/09 at 10:58 AM, dkenzie77 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

well yillda ill agree with ya i have heard some good reports and i have heard how people escape. I have heard one story that a escappe got loose in Banger Maine and broke in to someoens house. Gov Baldy is still gonna close it down. Just remember we voted him in. he is arse hole. His whole family are jerks. i reccommend to keep it open

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On 1/22/09 at 1:45 PM, MESAVALLEY wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Looks like a damn motel to me.

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On 1/22/09 at 3:39 PM, dkenzie77 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

They are originally motels, they say they arent but they are. You can find that information at the prison website. lol

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On 1/22/09 at 4:08 PM, Louise wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

dkenzie-----Sorry , but thats not true. Those buildings are part of the old CharlestonA.F.S. Those were built when I was very young, and that was a long time ago, believe me! My husband was stationed there and was a radar operator in the tower!! One of the buildings was the officers club, that we did frequent on occasion! So as you can see, those buildings are so old they probably should be torn down. There used to be houses there for the officers and familys. Then some of the correctional workers got to rent them. My son and his wife lived in one when they worked there. Then a lot got sold off and some torn down to make room for the Juvie detention center. Your history lesson for today!

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On 1/22/09 at 7:49 PM, commish4 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Louise is correct,it was an Air Force radar base.Still live within view of the hill. Bottom line CCF pulls its weight,spent 3 years there and I to went in the right direction after. Hell,I'm even literate,and opinionated. I even voted absentee in 2004 from prison.Just saying not all folks that go to prison are worthless scum.People make mistakes,not everybody gets caught. Probably those with the worst view of ex-cons.

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On 1/22/09 at 8:19 PM, Louise wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

commish4---------- I had a family member that worked there for a long time, then went over to juvie. No longer there. I've known young men that were there and all of them have had a good life since their release. They were there because they were not hardened or dangerous criminals . Dumb, petty stuff, and I agree., that all folks that go to prison are not worthless scum. There's a lot that should be there and all of them are laughing because their not! Are you old enough to remember when that was a going radar station? Probably not. I had to laugh when someone said that it was a motel! Where in hell would anyone be going up in Charleston on that cold hill that they would need a motel to stay in?

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On 1/23/09 at 12:01 AM, dkenzie77 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

im ss louise i was just reading from the prison website what building used to be and searched. I did learn my lesson history. Any charge bill me lol

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On 1/23/09 at 8:36 AM, yillda wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

While you are right in the aspect that people do sometimes wander off the straight and narrow at Charleston, dkenzie77, they do not get charged with "escaping". The ONLY thing keeping them from freedom, is a 12 foot piece of pine on a motor to make it go up and down. My husband used to joke with the guards telling them that if he could ever figure out out to get over the fence, he would go home. They don't get charged with escaping because they don't have fences surrounding the place. They would get a write-up. If any additional crimes were commited, obviously then they would get new charges (which are often harsher because the person is an inmate) tacked onto the current sentence. Then, reguardless of the situation or the circumstances, because they left, they would be shipped back to M.S.P. You only get to go to Charleston if you classify as minimun security, that may be at the beginning of one's time, or one may get to finish the remainder of their time there. The men that are there have been deemed a no flight risk. These guys are rewarded for good behavior and doing what they're supposed to on a regular, by moving to Charleston. They are rewarded a lot of leiniency too.

Congratulations Commish on all your accomplishments. My husband has also become an opinionated individual. Truthfully, he has become a new person, with a brand new view on everything.

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On 2/3/09 at 9:07 AM, beenthereb4 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Budget cuts at Charleston! Maybe there wouldn't have to be any if Charleston didn't abuse there budget. Wasting thousands of dollars in transporting inmates such as fuel, overtime for 2 employees new inmates to fill the spot and get issued new clothes etc..for petty issues. Heres an example: an inmate gets caught smoking and gets transferred to a more "secure" facility. Now how did the inmate acquire cigerettes? Perhaps he smuggled them in under the guards noses? Or did he acquire them by walking along the facility and picking up the employees left over cigerette butts? Now no state employee should be smoking on grounds because it is state property especially where there are inmates who see this. Oh wait... that must be why the Juvenile center out front has built a fence so they are out of view for not only the inmates but passerbys as well. Do you think all the smokers pitched in and paid and built this fence? I know for a fact that our tax dollars (CCF budget) paid for that material along with the salary of a CTI to have his crew build that. So enough boo hooing for Charleston ! Charleston creates their own problems and know one is held accountable .Unfortunately some good employees (low level) will be effected by this and the IDIOTS that got them in this mess will still be there

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