As a member of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice & Public Safety Committee, I’ve been afforded an excellent opportunity to study our county jail system and how it works. I am continually impressed by the diligent work of our county sheriffs, working with limited resources, to house inmates with care. We have an obligation to care for our inmates well, safely and with respect. It has been said, you can judge a civilization by how they treat their prisoners, and our sheriffs take that responsibility sincerely.

In Maine, about 1,800 inmates are currently housed across our 15 county jails (Two Bridges Regional Jail serves both Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties). Cost of detention ranges between roughly $70-110 per day per inmate, which amounts to more than $40,000 per year, or well more than the average annual pay of most Mainers. Putting people in jail, while called for in certain situations, isn’t cheap.

The total number of inmates in Maine is about 4,300 (prisons and jails combined). In Maine, by statute, if your sentence exceeds nine months, you go to prison. So our jails, in theory anyway, have only those serving shorter sentences. What will get you sent to jail? A long list of minor offenses — essentially, lesser crimes. However, most Class A and B crimes are going to get you longer sentences than nine months, in which case you’re going to prison, not jail. That’s the distinction, and it means that our jails are intended for people who have committed lower level offenses.

However, a probation violator, after being released from prison, will also get you put in jail. Across the jail system today, approximately 300 of these probation hold inmates are being held without bail. For example, someone recently released from state prison who failed to report to a probation check, resumed drug use or committed new criminal conduct will get put in jail, not go back to the state prison. These inmates then wait in jail for a court date, which can sometimes be a lengthy process. This is stressful and frustrating for the inmate, and introduces significant unnecessary costs to our jail system.

In total, pre-trail detainees make up 60-65 percent of the 1,800 inmates in jail on any given day. These include not just the probation violators, but also folks who have committed serious crimes (Class A, B felonies) but don’t have a court date yet. If found guilty, they may actually serve out the balance of their sentence in state prison, but they start out in our county jails. The courts feel these folks are a risk and therefore should be held. Many, understandably, have very high bail or no bail at all, but there are also many who have committed minor offenses but are not able to afford even the lowest bail.

Additional tensions have been created by the influx of inmates related to substance use disorder. Some estimate that as much as 80 percent of inmates housed in our jails have committed offenses tied to drug problems – everything from theft to support a drug habit, or actual drug offenses such as trafficking. Mental health problems are also common. Corrections staff that work at county jails are often stressed as well — many jails are understaffed. Jails in many cases are offering paid training and signing bonuses. If you’re looking for a good job opportunity, consider one of our county jails — several, including York County Jail, are hiring.

Recidivism can be a problem too. In the real world, on the day you get out, with no money, nowhere to live, and a conviction on your record making it hard to find employment — as well as perhaps a bunch of new ideas picked up from your friends in jail — you’re fairly likely to commit further crimes. For this and other reasons, despite the efforts of our staff at prisons and jails, the rate of recidivism in Maine is variously estimated at 20 to 50 percent (depending on how far down the road you look). State prisons have been expanding pre-release centers, which reintegrate inmates to the community and can even find them employment. Unfortunately, counties struggle to maintain pre-release programs because they don’t have the funding. It’s the same old story, when you struggle to keep guards on the floor, you cannot afford to have people working programs.

Speaking of funding, county jails are paid for primarily through local property taxes. That is achieved by a levy on all the cities and towns within a county. For example, the City of Biddeford pays a significant amount towards the York County Jail. The total amount of jail funding that counties can levy is set by the state. This amount is $63 million statewide, and by statute, can only increase 3 percent per year, even if inmate counts increase by more than that. An additional $12.5 million comes from the state in something called the Jail Operations Fund, which funds the jail operations as well as efforts by sheriffs and their staff to provide community education aimed at keeping people out of jail. This can include case management and support services for inmates when transitioning from jail after release. However, as costs grow due to greater numbers of inmates, there are no further funding options. Jails can’t really have bake sales. At least four of our counties have jails that are completely full, and must pay to board inmates elsewhere. This creates additional costs and also stresses families who must travel farther to visit their loved one in jail, not to mention increased transport costs for court appearances and lawyer visits.

In recognition of the financial stress our jail system is being placed under, last session the Legislature approved a special, one-time $2.5 million appropriation for county jail funding. However, spread across all 15 county jails, this was a small amount, and was only a one-time appropriation. As a member of the County Jail Working Group together with Rep. Karen Gerrish of Lebanon, I am working to find a long-term solution that will fund our jails appropriately, fluctuate with the prisoner count, keep the pressure off our property taxpayers, and not require a series of unpredictable, stressful one-time appropriations from the Legislature. I would appreciate your ideas and suggestions and be reached at martin.grohman@legislature.maine.gov or on my home phone at 283-1476.

— State Rep. Martin Grohman, D-Biddeford, represents House District 12, which includes part of Biddeford.