Pre release center to be built at prison site

The 15 months of limbo have been resolved for the Downeast Correctional Facility (DCF) in Bucks Harbor, with Governor Janet Mills and the Washington County legislative delegation announcing on May 3 that they have reached an agreement to build a new pre‑release center on the existing DCF grounds.
"As someone who fought to keep DCF open, I understand how important it is to the people of Washington County, and I shared in their frustration when it was closed," says Mills. "I thank the Washington County delegation for working with me and Commissioner Liberty to rectify this situation as best we could and ensure that DCF continues on in this new facility."
The budget for the pre-release center is from $6.2 to $8 million, and work is expected to take 18 to 24 months to complete. Department of Corrections (DOC) Commissioner Randall Liberty notes that, of the campus of existing DCF buildings, they will keep the warehouse and administrative buildings for reuse. "Others will be demolished," depending on budget constraints. A 10,000-square-foot steel building will be constructed for up to 50 inmates and will include a visitor space and kitchen and dining room area. Also included in the budget are plans to establish a new septic system.
The inmates will be minimum security prisoners and will be involved in community service and work‑release programs to develop re‑entry skills. Liberty says that 15 employees will staff the facility. He says that DOC is very interested in the inmates working with local nonprofits on community service, much as they did before. He is waiting until further along with the project before picking up the conversation with county businesses that had established strong work programs for inmates in the past. There are "pretty established employers," he adds.
The revamped DCF will be a subsection of Mountain View Correctional Facility, says Liberty. It will have a manager on site and will receive some support from the larger facility. The DOC will continue to engage with the employee unions, including on the issue of extending recall rights of former employees. Funds for the reconstruction of DCF will come from the Maine Government Facilities Authority bond, approved as public law in 2016.
"It's a great starting point," Rep. Will Tuell of East Machias says of the plan. "I'm very excited to have the facility on the former location." He explains that he and Senator Marianne Moore of Calais will likely keep one of their two bills to reopen the prison in process "just in case" there's a funding issue, but that legislative approval isn't needed for much of the project in its current iteration. "We don't need approval to buy, because DOC owns it; we're using bond funds, so we don't need legislative approval for that." A budget for operations and staffing isn't needed because that is at least a year away. He expects that the Mills administration "will provide more information to the Criminal Justice and Public Safety and Appropriations committees" in the near future. "This is just the first step of it."
Senator Moore says, "I am very pleased with the announcement about keeping the Downeast Correctional Facility at its current location. The Washington County delegation has been working diligently with Commissioner Liberty and his staff along with the governor to reopen this facility. While it will not be the size it was at closure, it is a start to bring this important re‑entry center back to Washington County."

Mixed emotions
A tireless advocate for DCF, Machiasport resident Melissa Hinerman has provided testimony at public hearings and more, and she has mixed emotions about the compromise. "It will certainly be harder for the state to close DCF in the future because the excuse of operating an aging facility will disappear. It's also fantastic that the name won't change and it will be in the same location." However, she is disappointed that DCF is going from its former 150 beds to 50 and from about 50 employees to 15.
She also stresses the 75 requests per year by businesses for inmate employees. "This does not include volunteer work, which at the height of operation completed over 30,000 hours per year in our communities."
Hinerman notes that three years ago the Washington County delegation "fought hard to secure a $10 million bond for us to build a new facility." She points to the gap between the highest number of the pre‑release project's budget of $8 million and the $10 million in bond funds. "The governor isn't giving it to us; we earned it. So while it is great we'll be building a brand new facility, I don't think we need to go above and beyond to thank the governor for letting us have what was rightfully ours to begin with. Once again like we do always, even though 50 beds is not enough, we will take what we get and work with it because that's what Washington County does."
The DCF pre‑release center will "provide a really nice augmentation of what we're doing historically," says Liberty. Best practices in corrections stress the importance of releasing inmates in the areas where they have worked, have access to family, friends, treatment if needed, education and housing and more. Annually, DOC releases about 33 inmates to Washington County. That's why it's important to have diverse correctional facilities around the state, he notes. "I'm very glad we have reached consensus," he adds.