Officials to discuss Somerset jail needs

SKOWHEGAN – As part of the decadelong planning process to address the overcrowding and safety issues at Somerset County Jail, the county’s engineering firm is touring the facility and meeting with area agencies and law enforcement leaders to determine the scope of the project.

The Jail Building Committee will meet with Curtis Pulitzer and David Bogard of Pulitzer & Bogard Associates at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, in the county commissioners’ room at the Somerset County Courthouse.

“This will be an opportunity to determine how big we should build, what will be the use of the current facility, and so on,” said Dale Watson, committee chairman.

Watson said the committee has decided not to build a new jail, which early estimates indicated could cost between $5.6 million and $11 million, but rather rebuild on the same site or construct a new wing. “An option has been obtained for a neighboring property, the site of a former hotel,” said Watson.

The engineers’ review process will provide a clearer picture of the county’s needs, said Watson. Pulitzer & Bogard is expert in jail renovation and construction, having worked with several other Maine counties. The company has offices in New York and Florida.

For several days after the planning meeting, the engineers will meet in 90-minute increments with police chiefs, judges from both the District Court and Superior Court, local defense attorneys, probation and parole officials and members of the Somerset County District Attorney’s office.

Watson said the firm has pledged to “assess the current and potential future utilization of alternative programs and criminal justice system improvement and to determine proposed jail capacity.”

Compliance issues and safety concerns have been raised at the jail for a decade, as well as issues of overcrowding. The jail was built to hold 45 inmates, but the population often swells to 100.

When the Somerset County Jail administrator conducted a tour of the facility in 1995, a host of cosmetic, structural and safety concerns was brought out. Then-administrator Judy Thornton pointed to a plastic bucket that had been in a hallway for seven years – to collect water running down through the ceiling from the shower stall on the floor above. She said at the time, “The doors don’t shut right; the toilets don’t flush right; the bunk beds have fallen off the wall; concrete walls are cracked open wide enough to fit a hand in; a piece of plastic has to be wedged into the faucet of a shower in order for the water to stay on. There is one clothes dryer serving a population of 50.”

The jail was constructed in the 1800s, and, after several renovations over the years, it was expected to last until 1950. The last renovation was in 1984.

Although day-to-day repairs have been made since Thornton’s tour in 1995, it wasn’t until the fall of 1999 that the county commissioners admitted the necessity for either major renovations or a new jail, and they undertook a jail needs assessment.

Three years later, the commissioners had hoped to bring a bond issue before voters this November but were stymied when a Portland firm “couldn’t seem to ever give us concrete prices,” said Watson. “We were far enough along in the process that we needed cost estimates for the bond issue. Hopefully, we will now shoot for the June [2003] primary.”

During the delay in the project, jail construction costs rose dramatically. A jail built in New Hampshire in 1998 cost $130 a square foot. Two years later, a jail in York County cost $220 a square foot to build. A new jail could cost up to $74,000 per bed, but a new facility’s efficiency level could decrease operating, maintenance and labor costs. The county also could build a facility large enough to offer boarding of prisoners from federal or state facilities. Cumberland County, for example, takes in $1 million a year in revenue from boarding prisoners.