BANGOR, Maine — The Penobscot County Jail is dealing with overcrowding this summer, and was required to file a plan to address the problem with the Maine Department of Corrections.
The jail was holding 212 in-house and 24 boarded out to another facility during a recent inspection and the jail had 196 in-house and 56 boarded out on Wednesday.
The jail’s state-rated capacity is 157 people.
“We have to address the overcrowding immediately, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton told the Bangor Daily News.
It’s not a new problem.
The state should be aware of the problem because county jails report their populations to the state each day, Morton said. The last time the jail was below its state-rated capacity was during the onset of the pandemic, Morton said.
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