Jail concerns spur early budget meeting

BANGOR – With substantial budget challenges ahead, Penobscot County took the unusual step Tuesday to convene its budget committee five months early, focusing the discussion on the prospects for a new jail.

While the budget is usually deliberated in the fall, commissioners said dealing with the continuing problem of a crowded jail and associated costs were enough to warrant the meeting of locally elected county officials. They face a deadline for requesting $1.3 million in federal funds for a new jail as well as the lengthy process of developing a construction project.

“We didn’t want to throw them a curve ball in November,” said county commission Chairman Dick Blanchard.

Opened 18 years ago, the Penobscot County Jail expansion provided more space, but the jail, intended to house 136 inmates, now averages 162.

Boarding costs for inmates shipped to other county jails met its budgeted amount five months into the year. If this program continues, boarding fees alone will cost the county another $210,000, not including transportation, food and fuel costs, which also will increase.

As a long-term solution, a new jail could be built on the same lot as the existing jail and county building or in another section of the city or even outside Bangor, as some suggested.

Stephen Rich, principle and chief operating officer of WBRC Architects, Engineers Inc., which designed the jail addition 18 years ago suggested committee members consider a regional approach. With a failed bid in Waldo County for a new jail and concerns of crowding in other county jails, Rich said a 150- to 200-bed facility might be more palatable to taxpayers if costs are spread out.

Budget committee members voted to have the county check with other counties to see if there is any interest in a cooperative approach.

Use of the defunct Eastern Fine Paper mill in Brewer as a jail was suggested, but Rich said renovations would be cost prohibitive.

Another proposed site is the existing Bangor police station, which the city intends to vacate once it builds a new station. But Rich said only about half the building could be used and that it might be better used for office space as it is in poor condition and retaining walls need to be shored up.

Glenburn councilor and budget committee member Kevin Paschal suggested regionalization on a smaller scale, with the county working with the city of Bangor rather than other counties to build a new jail. He was concerned that involving other counties might lead to criminals from other counties being released in Penobscot County and staying here with the drugs and other problems that prompted their incarceration in the first place.

Limiting the partnership to Bangor might make it easier to convince county residents to support it and “keep other counties’ problems out of our county,” Paschal said.