Overcrowding, poor condition stress county jail

The Washington County Jail in Machias is old, in bad shape and chronically overcrowded, according to the sheriff and the jail administrator. Over the past months, local citizens, the sheriff and representatives of the state have been in discussions about replacing the jail and the state prison in Bucks Harbor, which suffers from the same defects, with a combined facility that could share many resources and save money for taxpayers. Governor Baldacci's recent proposal for the state to take over all of the county jails has slowed, but not stopped, efforts toward this combined facility.

On a recent day, Captain Bob Gross, the administrator of the jail, was coping with 45 inmates in a facility designed to hold about a third fewer than that. The jail was built in the late 19th century, with an addition at the end of the 1980s. At the time, the jail was meant to house 36 prisoners, but the county obtained permission to increase that to 48 by utilizing the library and other common areas as cells for inmates. Gross says he has seen an explosion of prisoners since he started work at the jail in 1987. "We have had as many as 80 [inmates] at one time," says Gross, "with them on mattresses on the floor, everywhere." One of the driving factors in the overcrowding is the drug problem in the county. "Over 70% of our inmates here are drug related, one way or another." New technology, like a fingerprint scanner that can take an inmate's prints in one-tenth of a second and forward them to the state, and the use of video arraignments, where prisoners do not have to be transported to the courtroom for their appearance, has helped the staff of 25 full-time and part-time jailers cope with the influx.

Sheriff Donnie Smith, who has been closely involved with the effort to build a new facility, opposes the governor's consolidation plan. "Part of me says come and take it. The jail is old, is falling apart, and it shouldn't be where it is. But the price [of a state takeover] is it is the end of local control," says Smith. "We have our local people working here; they know who the players are. When I get a call from a parent or grandparent about something going on in the jail, I go and deal with it. Do you think that will happen when the state owns it?" Smith points out that, out of 50 states, only four or five have a combined system. "There are 3,084 county sheriffs in the U.S. There has to be a reason for it to be that way."

Sheriff Smith supports sharing resources but not consolidation with the state prison system. "People want local contact and local control. I am very much for resource sharing and saving on local taxes." Smith suggests a "Department of County Corrections. All 16 counties could join together to make mass purchases and to put out bids."

He worries about the county jail under the consolidation and about the jobs that go with it. "This facility is not in good shape. I don't think the governor will run this facility. [If it is closed] people will be out of work, and we can't afford to lose any more jobs in Washington County. The governor says he will save money, but he has not outlined where those savings will come from," Smith says. "The state is trying to just take over the jails, and they really don't understand the way jails work." Sheriff Smith points out that, unlike prisons that have a stable population and could be centralized, jails handle "pre-trial inmates that could spend up to a couple of years, inmates sentenced for up to 364 days on each charge," as well as newly arrested inmates and those serving only a day or two. Jail prisoners frequently need to make several court appearances, and if the jail is not adjacent to the court, transporting prisoners is costly and presents potential security concerns.

Asked what his ideal jail would be, Sheriff Smith said, "My vision is a big building, room for the inmates and the facilities they need. Many of the facilities C medical, food preparation, laundry C could be shared with a new state prison."

In touring the current jail, it's obvious that Smith's vision is far from his reality. The laundry, where clothing and bedding for all the inmates are handled, consists of a single washer and dryer; the kitchen is cramped and out of date; and the medical area is so small it can contain only a single bed, forcing many inmates to go to the local emergency room for care.

Both Smith and Gross are still moving forward with local efforts to build a new combined jail prison facility in Washington County, despite the proposed state takeover. "We'll keep trying," says the sheriff. "That's all we can do.