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New Somerset jail on track
BY MORNING SENTINEL STAFF Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 03/23/2008

MADISON -- Workers are painting the walls of the administrative offices in the $30 million Somerset County Jail.

Commissioner Philip Roy said the administrative portion of the jail will be ready for the sheriff to move in to by May or June. By midsummer, corrections officers will be training in one of the new housing pods and in October, inmates will begin transferring from the old jail.

"There is no question it will be on time and under budget," Roy said.

During a tour Thursday, Roy said contractor Sheridan Corp. has done an excellent job living up to an aggressive 16-month timetable.

Unfortunately, he said, the good news does not extend all the way to Augusta where legislators are considering several proposals on how to distribute costs under Gov. John Baldacci's jail consolidation plan.

"I don't want to be negative about it but some of us larger jails. ... We are going to take the brunt of this thing," Roy said.

The governor's initial plan called for folding county jails and state prisons into a single corrections system.

Under that plan, the state committed to absorbing any increases in jail operation expenses after consolidation takes place, though counties would still be liable for their own debt service.

That plan had a disproportionate impact on counties that have relatively new jails and are still paying for the debt service they had taken on to build those jails.

It would have left Somerset County responsible for yearly costs of about $2.8 million in principal and interest payments.

A compromise proposal worked out between counties and the governor called for the state to take over debt service costs, but with the state facing a $200 million shortfall, that proposal now appears to be dead, said Roy.

Of three plans under consideration in Augusta, Roy said, only one plan would relieve Somerset County taxpayers of the majority of jail debt costs. The other two would leave the county responsible for most or all of the debt costs.

Somerset County officials designed the $30 million jail to be much larger than the existing jail both to allow room for an expanding inmate population and give the county a way to raise revenue by accepting inmates from other counties.

If the state takes over the jails, counties would not only lose their ability to keep costs down, Roy said, but there is no guarantee the state will not go back on its commitment to cap county jail costs.

"The chances of this working is slim to none," said Roy. "(The state) has proven they can't control their own spending."

The jail will be a vast improvement from the existing century-old jail, operating more efficiently and offering a safer atmosphere for both inmates and corrections officers, say corrections officials.

It also will have room for programs designed to help inmates stay out of jail once they are released, county officials said during the tour.

But Roy is much less enthusiastic about the financial role the jail will play in the county's future.

"I am worried about Somerset County," he said. "I am worried that the taxpayers of Somerset County will bear a terrible burden because of this new jail."

Alan Crowell -- 474-9534, Ext. 342

acrowell@centralmaine.com

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