Long ago, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there lived a German philosopher by the name of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Hegel was a very important man who had the most important job in philosophy in Germany, holding the chair in philosophy at the University of Berlin.

He developed a theory of history and ideas in which opposite forces collided and produced a synthesis, leading ultimately to a final state of perfection called "the absolute idea."

The process is referred to as the Hegelian dialectic.

It works this way: Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

And the Hegelian dialectic is alive and well in Augusta.

In the recent case of Gov. John Baldacci's proposal to consolidate the state's jails, it played out this way:

n Thesis: Baldacci proposes saving money by having the state take over the county jail systems, closing five of those jails, laying off staff and creating a statewide mental health facility for inmates.

n Antithesis: County officials soundly reject the plan as poorly designed, a power grab and unlikely to save money. (And that's the nice version of what they said.) Counties issue their own proposal for saving money, which would establish a new protocol for assigning prisoners to jails to relieve overcrowding in some and fill empty beds in others -- but will keep county jails firmly in county hands.

n Synthesis: State and county officials put heads together, work out a compromise that establishes a new, statewide corrections board to oversee all jails. The plan relieves overcrowding in the state prison system by using county jail beds for boarders, caps county taxpayers' jail costs and requires the state to take over debt service for recently improved jails. Counties will keep running jails but state will oversee all operations.

The compromise was unveiled just as a legislative committee was due to consider the state and county plans -- and was likely to deal the state's plan the back of its hand.

While the compromise -- a synthesis of some of the better aspects of both state and county plans -- allows each side to save face and say it won, it remains to be seen if the new plan can truly provide taxpayers with savings and the state with a better correctional system.

Maine spends far lower than the national average on corrections -- the fifth lowest amount in the country as a percentage of the state's general fund.

Yet that doesn't mean we spend the right amount -- a two-tiered system that isn't centrally administered is very likely to have redundancies and inefficiencies.

By unifying the jails, efficiencies can be identified and enacted.

Jails could be closed. And by not turning county employees into state employees, wages will remain lower. Using county jails to house state inmates at no cost is a welcome development.

But it is also the case that a plan that makes state and local corrections officials all happy may not deliver the cost-savings to justify wholesale reorganization.

We're concerned about establishing another layer of administration; a state Corrections Board will cost money to service and administer.

Delaying the closing of jails buys some happy time for state and local officials, but it still may come down to a nasty fight when efficiency demands such closings.

As the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee considers this proposal, we urge them to get down to the basics as quickly as possible: How much will this save?

This plan may be a synthesis of two opposing plans, but will it produce the kind of change we need in our corrections systems?