Political prisoners

If Maine’s prison system weren’t so antiquated, inefficient and dangerously overcrowded, if the plan to rebuild it hadn’t been forged only after extensive study and debate, the move in the Legislature to reverse course on a restructuring plan already under way would make sense.

But the system is all those things, and the plan was developed under three years of broad daylight. The bill sponsored by Rep. James Skoglund to scrap the centerpiece of this necessary project only delays a journey the state inevitably must take.

At $73 a day and rising, Maine has one of the highest per-prisoner costs in the country, the result of too many small, old and poorly configured facilities. The restructuring, principally closing the ancient Maine State Prison at Thomaston and expanding at the Supermax site in neighboring Warren, would lower costs to $63, an annual saving of $6.8 million. While the Department of Corrections is, after years of budgetary neglect, developing educational and treatment programs based upon the best national models, progress is severely hampered by the built-in inefficiencies.

The system has a rated capacity of 1,457 prisoners; the current population exceeds 1,650 and is expected to grow to nearly 2,000 in the next few years. Double, triple, even quadruple celling of inmates is increasing; Maine is perilously close to class-action lawsuits, consent decrees and the court-ordered release of prisoners most Mainers would prefer kept behind bars.

Apparently, the Legislature would prefer they be kept behind bars, too. One of the primary causes of the overcrowding is the get-tough approach lawmakers took in 1995 when they revised the good-time law. Keeping offenders locked up longer while failing to provide for them is what happens when the left hand is unfamiliar with activities of the right. And it’s not as though Maine is incarceration-crazy — the state’s percentage of overall population is prison is the second lowest in the nation.

There are issues, and the Criminal Justice Committee hearing on Skoglund’s bill April 28 will be a good opportunity to air them. The Department of Corrections has pledged to keep its financial obligation to Thomaston, which expanded its waste-water treatment plan to accommodate the prison. The department has assured Warren it will carry out whatever waste-water improvements are needed there and will protect the St. George River. The state is vigorously pursuing the conversion of the property-tax exempt Thomaston prison to taxpaying private uses. The hearing will provide a good opportunity for an update.

Then there’s the issue of financing the restructuring though the State Government Facilities Authority instead of gaining voter approval at referendum. The Legislature created this mechanism years ago, originally the Maine Court Facilities Financing Authority, knowing that spending money on criminals is always a hard sell at the polls. It took on its role as decision-making representatives in a representative democracy, it was willing to make the tough calls. Skoglund’s bill yanks that funding authority only for the Thomaston/Warren component, but allows the rest of the rebuilding to proceed without referendum. That’s selective outrage.

The restructuring plan started in 1996 with an inventory and assessment of Maine’s corrections system. It was developed by the Governor’s Correctional Facilities Improvement Commission after months of well-publicized public meetings with participation by lawmakers, judges, prisoner advocates, corrections experts, clergy, police and local officials. It was approved by the Legislature just last year. It’s time to move ahead, not to take two steps back.