FARMINGTON -- The Franklin County Jail's new mission as a 72-hour holding facility is being formally implemented today.

Jail Administrator Sandra Collins told county commissioners Tuesday there are 21 inmates facing Franklin County charges now being boarded at the Somerset County Jail in Madison.

As of Tuesday afternoon, three remaining inmates were expected to be released or bailed, leaving the jail devoid of tenants until new arrests come in, according to a corrections officer.

As a test of the skeleton operation, Collins said a seemingly healthy inmate who arrived from Oxford County Jail Monday appeared to have a breakdown at midnight.

"He flipped out and starting poking himself with a pencil," she said. "Then he started punching himself in the throat with the pencil."

With only two corrections officers on duty, Collins said she authorized a part-timer to be called in to accompany the injured man to Franklin Memorial Hospital in a Franklin county deputy's cruiser.

Under the state's jail consolidation plan, the Maine Department of Corrections' Bureau of Corrections is taking over all jail operations.

County taxpayers, however, will continue raising the money needed to keep their jails going. Budgets will be developed locally, reviewed by county commissioners and then approved by the Bureau of Corrections.

Out of 17 full-time corrections officers in Franklin County, seven were laid off; three of those have been hired at the Somerset County Jail. In administration, Collins' job ends July 7, assistant jail administrator Doug Blauvelt's last day was June 30, and classification officer Diane Serino ended her 24-year career at the jail on June 26. Two cooks were also laid off.

Three new jobs -- detention center manager, transport officer, and custodian -- will be filled in-house by the county commissioners. Blauvelt and Collins are among those applying for the manager's job, they said.

Sheriff Dennis Pike said the majority of the laid-off officers are staying on part-time and Blauvelt is training to be a reserve deputy.

Commissioner Gary McGrane of Jay said an arrangement was made with the Somerset County commissioners that any corrections officer losing a job in Franklin County would be offered a similar position at the Madison jail.

The dislocated workers are also eligible federal job retraining funds and other resources offered through the CareerCenter in East Wilton and Western Maine Community Action, he said.

McGrane said Franklin County is in line to receive $330,754 of the $10.7 million in additional federal economic stimulus money coming to Maine to train dislocated workers and disadvantaged youth for jobs in health care, finance, wood products, and communications through the CareerCenter.