Maine’s system of county jails is becoming increasingly unworkable. Jail administrators say they will need to start letting inmates go if they don’t get more money to run their operations.
One solution would be to allow the belatedly empowered Board of Corrections, which is supposed to oversee a consolidated county jail system, do its job. Last May, following the recommendations of a group tasked with studying the consolidated jail system, lawmakers gave the board real authority over budgets, contracts and new construction. Gov. Paul LePage vetoed the legislation, but lawmakers overrode it. Since then, LePage has refused to appoint needed members to the board, so it is nonfunctional. The board’s executive director quit last month.
Now, to end this impasse, two Republican lawmakers are proposing the jail system be run by a “receiver.”
Sen. James Hamper, R-Oxford, and Rep. Tom Winsor, R-Norway, propose to allocate an additional $2.2 million to the jail system and have the disbursement of the money overseen by a receiver appointed by the governor.
Appointing members to the board and letting them do their job is the best, most direct solution. If the board can quickly hire a new executive director, this person should fill the receiver position Hamper and Winsor envision. Alternatively, a short-term solution could be a receiver/expert to manage the system.
Any changes lawmakers consider must be guided by two principles. First, a coordinated system is meant to reduce duplication and save money. More important, Maine, like other states, must devote more attention to drug and mental health treatment and counseling for inmates, many of whom essentially are warehoused at county jails. This can’t be done while administrators are battling over budgets and authority.
“The plan to create a system designed to find efficiencies, enhance programs to reduce recidivism and prevent overcrowding has been lost amongst turf battles over budget dollars and a sense of loss of local control and the lack of funding by the Legislature,” a task force charged by the Legislature with studying the county correctional system said in its 2013 report, which declared the system broken. Because the system was unable “to make clear and convincing justifications in a timely manner within the state budget process,” the county jails were flat-funded in the last state budget, further stressing a tenuous system.
To move beyond this impasse, the person in charge — the term “receiver” has a negative connotation — should not be appointed by the governor. Instead, he or she should be independent, like the court master who oversees the Augusta Mental Health Institute consent decree. In that case, retired Maine Supreme Court Chief Justice Daniel Wathen oversees the state’s compliance with the decree, filing periodic reports with state officials. The Board of Corrections, if the governor allowed it to function, could appoint such a person.
“I don’t have a preference whether the state takes them over or the county takes them over,” LePage said to reporters Tuesday when asked about the proposal. “What I do have a preference [for] is whoever runs the jails has to be … the person in charge of the finances as well. You can’t have one group run the jails and the other group pay for them.”
The governor is right that jail finances and operations are inextricably linked and that one entity must oversee both. There is, however, a big difference between having the state or the counties in charge. Returning control to the counties puts the state back where it was before the 2008 consolidation plan with an uncoordinated, expensive system. That would be a step backward.
Maintaining state control in a system with strong leadership, direction and control is the best way forward.
