By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON, Maine — The Aroostook County Jail is facing a perilous financial situation, prompting jail officials to think outside the box in order to continue housing inmates.
A luncheon and tour of the jail was held Feb. 7 for members of the Aroostook County Legislative delegation, as well as members of the media. During the meeting, it was revealed that the Aroostook County Jail, located in Houlton, was facing a huge financial shortfall. Those legislators attending the event included Rep. Joyce Fitzpatrick of Houlton; Rep. Carole McElwee of Caribou; Rep. Robert Saucier of Presque Isle; and Rep. Charles “Ken” Theriault of Madawaska.
County Administrator Doug Beaulieu said each year the amount the county jail is budgeted is never sufficient to last for an entire year.
“For the last four fiscal years, the Board of Corrections has approved ‘deficit reduction’ payments to the ACJ, on top of annual Investment Fund distributions,” Beaulieu said. “In fiscal year 2013 alone, the deficit reduction payment amounted to $289,000.”
Beaulieu added the gap between what is budgeted and what is needed to run the jail is growing at an alarming rate. The Board of Corrections regularly mandates that the Aroostook County Jail be flat-funded, but those funds are never adequate to cover the true cost of operating the facility.
“We anticipate a structural gap of $360,000 in FY 2014, and $480,000 in FY 15,” he said. “These are extremely conservative estimates, in that they do not include capital for the purchase of vehicles or money for infrastructure improvements to our facility. This could easily account for another $100,000-$150,000 per fiscal year.”
Beaulieu said realistically, the Aroostook County Jail will be about $500,000 over its budget by the end of the current fiscal year. What typically takes place is the BOC sends out “kicker payments” to jails midway through the fiscal year, Beaulieu said.
“The problem this year is the Board (of Corrections) is going to run out of money in the third quarter,” he said. “We have not received our third or fourth quarter allotment, but neither has any other jail in the system.”
Beaulieu said the county jail probably has enough money to get through one-half of the fiscal year, but after that, it would be out of money.
Since its construction in 1889, the Aroostook County Jail has housed inmates who are either awaiting trials or sentencing or were involved in minor incidents. But what happens when the number of inmates exceeds capacity on a regular basis?
That has been a question that county jail officials have struggled with for longer than they can remember.
Back in 1991, the Aroostook County Jail was rated for 66 prisoners. Today, it is rated for 86 inmates (up from 72 just one year ago), but regularly has more than that due to the sheer volume of inmates either awaiting trial or sentencing or those who are arrested and unable to post bail. For the most part, inmates are either waiting to be sentenced or are pre-trial.
In years past, about 75-80 percent of the population were sentenced and doing their time, while 25 percent were waiting to go to court. Today, those numbers have flipped as about 20-25 percent of the total population is serving their time after being sentenced, while the rest are waiting a court appearance.
Compounding the problem, the length of stay for those pre-trial inmates is unusually long for inmates of the Aroostook County Jail.
“For whatever reason, in Aroostook County it takes so much longer for a case to go from the time a person is arrested to the time they are sentenced than it does anywhere else in the state of Maine,” said Deputy Chief Darrell Crandall of the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department.
Crandall added what is driving the number of inmates coming into the jail is mainly substance abuse issues.
During its biennium inspection conducted last March, the jail was cited for several violations, most of which stem from overcrowding at the Houlton facility. In the report provided to The Houlton Pioneer Times, the Aroostook County Jail was cited for exceeding its “established rated capacity” on 75.1 percent of the days during a six-month period. In some cases, the in-house population has been more than 100 inmates.
Because the facility averages more than 100 inmates on a daily basis, jail officials regularly have to ship inmates to other facilities around the state, which is both costly and time consuming.
Crandall said it was not uncommon to have to pick up a prisoner in Portland, who was supposed to be housed in Houlton, to make an appearance in court in front of a judge. Those meetings sometimes last as little as 15 minutes.
He stated in the first 10 months of 2013, jail officials moved 2,596 inmates a total of 118,848 miles for transfers.
With no foreseeable decline in inmate population, jail officials have opted to increase the number of prisoners it can house. Some beds have already been added to the Houlton jail so that it can now house up to 86 inmates. That number is expected to increase to 105 over the course of the next few months.
To accommodate those extra beds, a recreational/fitness room was eliminated and will be converted to a dorm-style cell similar to others in the jail. Because recreation and physical activities need to be included in daily routines, the plan is to create a covered, outdoor area for inmates to go to on a year-round basis for exercise.
The jail underwent a change in leadership last July when veteran jail administrator James Foss retired from his post after 22 years. Craig Clossey succeeded Foss as jail administrator and works closely with Crandall.
Jail History
There have been three major additions to the jail in its 125-year history. The first was completed in 1935, followed by additional expansion in 1959-60. There was a major renovation and addition completed in 1986.
The Aroostook County Jail serves a 6,700 square mile county with a population of nearly 72,000. The current jail is 22,000 square feet. Construction on the Aroostook County Jail began in 1889 at its current location by builders John A. Greenleaf and Van Dorn Iron Works. W.E. Mansur was the original architect for the facility. Work was completed in February, 1890.
“When they started, they had just 16 cells,” said Sgt. Carmen Leavitt, who is also one of the historians of the jail.
In the Feb. 20, 1890 issue of the Houlton Times, it stated “no cell can be opened without first opening a combination lock safe, in which are the locked lever bars for operating one or all of the cells; and the system of locking is such that it will keep a moth out as well as prisoners in.”
Several renovation and expansion projects have been undertaken. In 1931, the jail’s capacity was doubled with an expansion.
In 1953, the east wing was added to the facility and in 1988-89 the west wing was added and the entire facility was renovated. At one time, the sheriff and his family lived at the County Jail. About 20 years ago, the jail underwent another renovation, with many cells re-done to make them more modern.
Leavitt said he only knows of two incidents when inmates escaped.
“When the jail was being renovated in 1931, there were two guys who managed to escape during the night,” Leavitt said. “The other was in the 1970s.”
The jail and courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Jan. 26, 1990.
The Aroostook County Jail has a staff of 30 full-time employees (28 corrections officers and two cooks) and about 10 part-time employees.
