YES ON QUESTION 1

Do you favor a $25,000,000 bond issue to raise funds to build a new correctional facility in Machias and to make improvements to the Maine Correctional Center in South Windham?

Maine can take pride in the changes that have taken place during the last five years in its prisons. Two major initiatives have transformed the embarrassment that was the Maine Youth Center into a productive and humane youth corrections system, and rebuilt the old, inefficient adult prisons – for men and women — into new facilities that offer safety and rehabilitation for prisoners while saving the taxpayers money.

This $180 million overhaul was designed from the start to be done in three steps. The first two were done with surplus and through a lease-purchase agreement. The third step remains: It will be done with voter approval of the $25 million bond issue in Question 1. The full return on the investments made in the first two will not be realized without it.

The Downeast Correctional Facility in Bucks Harbor, near Machias, is a minimum-security lockup that, according to the consultant’s study that got this entire makeover under way, is the most efficient – in terms of low staff turnover and per-inmate costs – in the entire system, despite being located in a building – part of a former military base – entirely unsuited to the purpose. The $13.9 million allocated in this bond to construct a new facility in Machias will take better advantage of DCF’s dedicated and well-trained work force, it will eliminate the need to undertake expensive and necessary safety and environmental improvements at Bucks Harbor and it will lower per-inmate costs by nearly 20 percent.

This new facility will be a primary pre-release center, a vital part of a complete corrections system that rehabilitates prisoners through education, counseling and substance abuse programs. A recent federal grant of $1.9 million to establish the Maine Re-entry Network is based upon the state’s commitment to supporting inmates during their transition back to society, a process that requires a strong pre-release component.

The $11 million South Windham project also is necessary to complete what has been started. This component will construct an infirmary and an extended-care unit that will reduce the need to treat prisoners at civilian hospitals and other health care facilities, a situation that is extremely expensive and that creates needless security risks.

Further, although current economic conditions might seem to argue against this question, the opposite is true : Interest rates are low, Maine’s bonded debt is extraordinarily low and the construction work will provide a welcome boost. These projects must de done if Maine is to consider its once-broken corrections system fully fixed, and they should be done now.