Maine voters reject prison bond issue

BANGOR – The $25 million bond that would build a new prison in Machias and make improvements at the Maine Correctional Center in South Windham was being soundly rejected by voters, according to unofficial results tabulated by the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday night.

Voters made it very clear that they were not interested in borrowing the money that state officials said was so badly needed to replace the Down East prison and repair the prison in South Windham.

With 81 percent of precincts reporting, 63.6 percent of voters said no to the bond and 36.4 percent approved it.

Precincts in Bangor, Portland, Augusta and Saco were voting down the bond issue as were western communities such as Bethel, where voters defeated it 2-to-1.

The bond issue was going down 2-to-1 in five Maine counties and early results from Piscataquis County showed voters defeating the measure nearly 4-to-1.

The bond also appeared to be losing in Penobscot County 2-to-1.

If the bond had passed, $13.9 million would have been used to build a new 152-bed minimum-security prison in Machias to replace the aging military barracks in Bucks Harbor that serves as the Downeast Correctional Facility. The remaining $11.1 million would have been used to improve security and to construct a long-term infirmary at the Maine Correctional Center in South Windham.

While Maine voters usually support bond issues, even expensive ones, the prison bond had a seemingly uphill battle for two reasons: a deluge of political ads hammering home the state’s budget crisis and voters’ general apathy about prison improvements.

They were issues that have worried Department of Corrections Commissioner Martin Magnusson.

“This just makes sense from so many angles,” Magnusson said during an interview in October. “This facility in Bucks Harbor is going to have to be replaced sometime. Trying to piecemeal improvements is simply not working anymore. It’s going to cost Maine taxpayers much more if we continue attempts at making improvements at the existing prison. Fiscally, this bond issue makes sense for the taxpayer.”

Magnusson said if the bond failed, the state still would have to find a way to keep the dilapidated facility open because of the urgent need for space.

The state prison system now has a budgeted capacity of 1,779 inmates, but on Tuesday there were 1,850 inmates in residence.

“Just because we lose, we can’t stick our head in the sand and give up. We have to keep that place open, but it’s going to take a lot of money to do that,” the commissioner said Tuesday night.

But one voter, who refused to identify himself as he left the Bangor Civic Center on Tuesday afternoon, said he simply would not support any measure with a price tag attached until the legislators and the governor took care of the budget crisis.

Magnusson was well aware going into Tuesday’s election that many taxpayers would hold the same opinion.

Despite that concern, the bond issue faced no organized opposition aside from a group of University of Maine at Machias students who voiced concern, primarily at campus forums, about the proposed prison’s location in the Machias Industrial Park adjacent to the university.

It appeared that many in Washington County, where every job counts, supported the measure. The prison employs 71 people. The town of Machias donated 21 acres to the state to locate the prison. That property is served by town water and sewer, which would save taxpayers thousands of dollars to make improvements to the Bucks Harbor facility’s sewer system, Magnusson said.

The town selectmen put out a press release supporting the bond issue, and the county’s legislative delegation campaigned in favor of it as well.

At press time, Washington County voters were split evenly on the issue.

Officials including Gov. Angus King had been telling voters that building the new prison in Machias would reduce the per-inmate operations cost from $130 a day to $85 a day, an approximate 34 percent decrease.