A medium-security unit at Maine Correctional Center in Windham targeted for closure in Gov. Baldacci’s two-year budget proposal is likely to be saved after the Corrections Department and a legislative committee found other areas to cut.

The 94-bed unit, along with 10 regular and four temporary positions, was included in January in proposed cuts to the Department of Corrections budget designed to help close an $838 million gap.

The two-year budget also included the closure of housing units at the Bolduc Correctional Center in Warren, Charleston Correctional Facility and the Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport. The proposal also includes a plan to ship 118 prisoners to an out-of-state private prison.

State Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, said this week that research done by the committee and the Department of Corrections, including trips by legislators to each of the facilities, have unearthed new areas that can be cut without closing units or shipping prisoners out of state.

“All those cuts are gone. The department came up with alternate cuts that made sense,” said Gerzofsky, D-Cumberland, who did not want to specify how the cuts were made until the committee votes on the final proposal next Tuesday. There may be some minor changes, but he expects the cuts will be eliminated in the final product. After the vote, the committee will forward its recommendation to the Appropriations Committee, which then puts a final budget before the full Legislature.

State Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Cumberland, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said he is optimistic new cuts can be found.

“We are working real hard to avoid the closing of the Windham unit, and I think we’re making significant progress,” he said in an e-mail. “I believe that we can find other budget savings to offset not only the closings, but also the need to send inmates out of state.”

The committee had very serious concerns about the impact of the proposed cuts on the corrections system, Gerzofsky said. Though the budget goals were met with the proposal, it would have left the state’s prison system in worse shape, he said.

In their deliberations, the committee visited each of the facilities on the list for closure, asking questions of the staff and using the answers to find a better solution to the budget problems, the senator said. The lessons gained from the visits were invaluable, he said.

“Staff usually knows where there is waste, and they know this committee takes them seriously,” said Gerzofsky.