Ex-BMHI building eyed for inmates State needs housing for incarcerated women

AUGUSTA – With twice as many women inmates as it has space to hold them, the Maine Department of Corrections is looking to move several inmates to transitional facilities, including a building on the grounds of the former Bangor Mental Health Institute.

The former BMHI now is known as the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center.

“The Bangor Mental Health facility seems to offer the best facility to meet what we see as the program needs for the transitional unit,” said Deputy Corrections Commissioner Denise Lord on Friday. “We have been working with the Bureau of General Services to see how we can bring that facility up to standard so we can open it as a transition unit.”

She told members of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on Friday that it likely will “take awhile” to get the facility operating in Bangor, so the department is negotiating with the county jails about housing some of the inmates temporarily.

The DOC has 140 women inmates with space at the Windham Correctional facility for 70. Lord said there are “over 30” inmates with less than a year to serve on their sentences who are waiting to be placed in the women’s unit. They are among the 58 women waiting in a holding area, and they would be the first shifted to the transitional facility, group homes or into an independent living arrangement under the evolving plans to address the overcrowding throughout the corrections department system.

But panel members are concerned about the level of programs that would be offered to the women as they are in the final months of their sentences. Lord said the DOC may have to provide some programming for those inmates temporarily housed in a county jail.

“I am very concerned about what will happen for programming,” said Rep. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, co-chairman of the panel. “Are some of these women not going to get any treatment?”

Lord acknowledged that likely would be the case, even if the DOC works to provide some programs through a county jail. She said it would be very difficult to provide the same quality of programs outside of the current women’s unit.

“And I share your concerns, Representative Gerzofsky,” she said. “The level and intensity of [drug] addiction among the female offender population is higher than among the male offender population.”

Lord said that “about 90 percent” of the women in the state correctional system need drug treatment programs. Gerzofsky said the goal of the treatment programs is to make sure inmates have a good chance of “succeeding” after they leave prison, and he said not providing treatment could mean further crowding problems in the future.

“There is a potential for improving the treatment system, in the long run,” said Rep. Gary Plummer, R-Windham. “I think this is a good start by opening up more space and improving security.”

Gerzofsky said the overcrowding in the women’s unit at the Correctional Center in Windham has been overshadowed by overcrowding throughout the DOC. He said the state needs to address both situations or face the risk of the courts ordering improvements.

Lord and State Jail Inspector Ralph Nichols also updated the committee on plans being developed to address the growing number of male inmates in the system. Nichols said there have been negotiations with the York County jail, the Cumberland County jail and the Two Bridges jail that serves Sagadahoc and Lincoln counties.

Nichols was one of three state officials who visited a private prison in Oklahoma. It would cost the state $75 a day to house each inmate at the prison. Panel members asked when the DOC would begin to move inmates.

“We are looking to have a final contract on the county jail side by May 1st,” Nichols said. “We have not gotten to that point with the facility in Oklahoma. We have looked at some sample contracts, but we have not really negotiated.”

Gerzofsky said that over the next two weeks the committee expects to have some final plans from the department on dealing with the short-term solution to the overcrowding at both the men’s and women’s facilities.