Penobscot County feels pinch of higher jail costs

BANGOR – Penobscot County Jail could once count on tens of thousands of dollars in revenues as it rented out bed space to other county jails short on room for inmates.

Now, Penobscot County is shipping its excess inmates elsewhere and is feeling the financial pinch.

This week, Penobscot County Commissioners were told of nearly $40,000 in bills from November alone from other county jails to house Penobscot County Jail inmates. This is on top of $27,000 in bills from Cumberland and Hancock county jails in October.

Cumberland County charges more than $103 per bed per day for boarding and assessed Penobscot County 417 bed days for October and November, officials said.

While commending Sheriff Glenn Ross’ efforts to curb costs and provide the most bang for the buck, the commissioners pressed him to seek further savings in light of these bills.

“We’ve just got to do something to keep our numbers down,” said Commissioner Dick Blanchard, recently elected chairman of the three-member panel.

Ross said later this week that he can only cut so much, so he’s not sure where the additional savings will come.

Space is already at a premium. Rooms once reserved for inmate programs have been turned into cells as the jail rated for 136 inmates now houses 169 prisoners.

The jail has a contingency allowance for temporary housing for up to 154 inmates, but what is supposed to be a temporary allotment has been in place for three years, Ross said.

Efforts to find additional space using existing unused space on the campus of the Bangor Mental Health Institute fell through when it was determined it was too expensive, Ross said.

Increasingly, jails are turning to alternative programs such as those offered through Volunteers of America, which has seen an increase in demand for pre- and post-trial monitoring programs, according to June Koegel, president and CEO of the VOA Northern New England.

Last fall, Penobscot County added a second VOA staff member that will double to 40 the number of inmates the program works with in the county.

Meanwhile VOA is expanding into Lincoln and Waldo counties this month, Koegel said.

In November, VOA provided services to 25 Penobscot County inmates, saving the county nearly $37,000, according to a VOA document.

Through VOA, qualified inmates can serve the final third of their sentence outside the jail. The staff also monitor people charged with crimes before their court appearances, making sure they show up at court and also get help like anger management or substance abuse treatment and for whatever problems may have led to their crimes, Koegel said.

But the VOA programs aren’t for every inmate, county and VOA officials said. Some, because of the nature of their crimes or history, simply wouldn’t be eligible for the programs, nor should they be, Ross said. That leaves incarceration.

Ross is not alone in dealing with an inmate population problem. Statewide, prison populations have increased 20 percent since 2000, and a special commission is forwarding its recommendations to the Legislature to deal with population and other prison issues.

Among the recommendations is reducing time served by increasing good time available to jail inmates from two days a month to four days.

A work and education program would allow inmates who participate in educational programs, counseling or work programs to earn up to five days per month off their sentences.