HOULTON, Maine — The preliminary steps toward building a new jail in Aroostook County are underway even though designs and final community approval are still a long way out.
On Wednesday, the Aroostook County Commissioners approved the Aroostook County Jail Needs Assessment and authorized the county administrator to develop a request for proposal from architectural and engineering firms to design a facility.
Basically, what they are after at this point is a cost for building the jail, said Administrator Ryan Pelletier.
“With this next step a design of the facility will let people see what a new jail would look like and what the cost would probably be to build a new jail,” Pelletier said.
The Aroostook County Jail opened in the 1880s and is out of date in many respects, according to the recent assessment. Additionally, researchers from Justice Planners, a South Carolina-based criminal justice and corrections consulting firm, noted that the current Houlton location is not ideal because it is not located near the center of the County population.
In the end, the commissioners do not have the authority to build a new jail, and once there is a cost they are comfortable with, it will go out to public vote, he added.
As part of their statistical analysis of the jail in Houlton, Justice Planners’ consultants interviewed County criminal justice leaders, conducted an onsite review in April and analyzed large data sets tied to jail intakes, previous jail populations and County population history to forecast current and projected bed need for the jail facility through the year 2050.
According to the report, the data reviewed included key information about every individual charged with an offense between January 2019 and March of this year. And during the April onsite visit, the consultants talked with people working in the jail and County law enforcement officials to get a better feel of how the jail is or is not meeting current needs.
The largest proportion of individuals held are violent felons, but the number held for violating conditions of release or probation violations is unusually high compared to other jurisdictions, the report said.
The consulting team noted that despite being in continuous operation for 140 years, the existing jail in Houlton that houses 117 inmates was “exceptionally clean and well-maintained, surpassing many facilities that are only five or six years old and that the staff was noted as highly professional.”
Additionally, planners found that because of limited space, jail officials are forced to place inmates with special needs — protective custody, health, mental health — in rooms normally used for 12-step meetings or educational purposes, making such therapeutic measures impossible. A very small booking area and limited file storage poses current challenges.
Inmate living spaces, such as their cells and dayrooms have exposed conduit for plumbing and radiant heat as well as metal plates bolted to the ceilings after years of repair.
“These items present hazards for vandalism and contraband but are also potential ligature points which become life-safety issues. Exposed ceiling pipes and ductwork pose a safety risk for inmates,” the report said.
The location of a new jail is an important consideration, according to the analysis, because the distance to the jail from more northern parts of the County is a burden for some law enforcement officials.
The location will have a direct impact on the size of the facility built, consultants said.
“If a new jail were to be built in Houlton, the projected average daily inmate population is projected to be 126 by 2050. The total number of beds needed to properly house this population would be 158,” analysts said in the report. “However, if a new jail were to be built in the Presque Isle or Caribou area the projected population and bedspace needed would be higher, 229 beds to house 183 inmates.”
Pelletier said the design is also going to tell them how much land they need to build a jail.
“I suspect at some point, once we know that, we’re going to be asking the communities to identify, ‘Are you interested in having the jail here,’” he said. “If so, we have to determine what [land] is available as well as water and sewer [access].”
The earliest we will see a public vote on anything related to the jail is probably another year to 18 months,” Pelletier said.
For now, the County will put out the RFP and once proposals are received, the commissioners will decide which proposal best fits the need including price and expertise of the designers.
Pelletier said he plans to have the RFP ready in the next 30 days and it will be about three months before a firm is selected.
“I encourage people to look at the website, the meeting minutes and the jail commission reports,” he said.
