Downeast prison

One of the most important debates facing lawmakers come January will be on restructuring Maine’s antiquated and inordinately expensive corrections system. One of the most persistent and unified voices in that debate must continue to be that of Washington County.

The eastermost region has done a remarkable job so far in making itself heard. When a consultant recommended in June that six of Maine’s eight adult prisons be closed, including Downeast Correctional Facility, and that the two remaining prisons in Warren and Windham be expanded, county and local officials, legislators, business leaders and citizens banded together and cried foul.

First, they protested being left off the governor’s committee that approved the consultant’s report. They demanded representation and got it. Then, they pointed out the report’s most glaring errors of omission — it’s failure to take into account the economic-development component of corrections other states have long recognized, and the lack of consideration given to the devastation the closure of DCF would inflict, the impact of losing 70 steady jobs in one of the state’s most chronically underemployed regions. And they’ve made a dent. Their objections have turned into viable options.

Between now and January, the committee will be putting together a final recommendation for the Legislature, which may be a modified version of the consultant’s plan. The leading contender for a modification is closing the 140-inmate DCF but replacing it with a 200-inmate minimum-security lockup in the Machias region, instead of adding on the Maine Correctional Institute in Windham.

There’s another option. The plan’s biggest construction project calls for expanding the 100-inmate Supermax at Warren into a 1,000-inmate prison for maximum and minimum-security prisoners. Washington County could lobby for that bigger slice of the pie.

The choice is between essentially preserving the employment status quo with the minimum-security facility, with the potential for future expansion, or going for the larger general-purpose prison. What Washington County must do is pick one of the two, continue to build a solid case for that choice and stick together. The county has fought hard for a seat at the table, but it easily could get shoved aside if it is divided on what it wants.

The report by Pulitzer/Bogard is just a starting point, a strictly business, bottom-line framework for a more efficient prison system. But a Virginia-based consulting firm cannot be expected to know Washington County’s history of economic struggle, or how hard DCF has worked to make the system’s most inadequate building into one of it’s most efficient facilities, with the lowest staff turnover rate. Washington County is fully capable of making its own case, but it can do so only if it picks one goal and works as one to achieve it.