THE JAIL ESCAPE

John Baldacci has been trying to consolidate government for as long as he has been governor. But over the years he has changed tactics substantially, going from a very public and deliberative merging of human services in 2004 to the surprise declaration on county jails this year. The minimal support he has received with his jail plan should encourage his administration to emphasize the slower, more public process of examining this idea.

The governor began his “I’m the decider” approach to consolidation last January in his second inaugural address when he announced that school districts would be consolidated and that the number of districts would fall from 290 to 26. He later backed away from that number, and the Legislature raised it to 80 districts, but it certainly got lawmakers’ attention and pushed the idea forward.

His approach was similar for consolidating the county jails, at the beginning anyway. In August, he announced he would have the state take over Maine’s 15 county jails, close four – in Oxford, Franklin, Piscataquis and Waldo counties – and consolidate administration. As with the larger school districts, the anticipated savings would come through greater efficiencies in central offices and purchases as well as through more effective use of bed space in the system.

Maine county jails have additional burdens that raise costs but must be addressed: better service for the mentally ill, treatment for substance abuse and services for women. Over the last three years, county jail budgets have cumulatively risen more than 12 percent annually, according to the governor, as the state prison costs have risen at less than half that rate. New county jail construction – even as some jails have enough space – will keep that rate high.

County officials say not so fast: There are transportation issues to consider as well as booking and capital improvement questions. There’s the distance the incarcerated would be from their hometowns, possibly affecting legal representation. And they doubt the governor’s cost numbers. There are, in short, more than enough doubts to slow down this plan until the most substantial issues can be addressed.

With the human services merger, former Labor Commissioner Val Landry led a deliberative process to work out hundreds of details. With schools, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the Appropriations Committee served that role. Two parallel groups are working on jails – state officials and county sheriffs and commissioners are looking over details, and various working groups of these people and jail experts are trying to fashion legislation for next year’s session.

That’s a good start, but it won’t be enough without many more public sessions and hearings. From the time the jail consolidation was announced it seemed hurried and only half considered. That understandably made county officials nervous. They deserve detailed updates of what the state is planning and a pledge from the governor’s office that it will remain flexible enough to concede it might be wrong in the specifics of its plan or in the plan generally.

The governor was right to raise this issue. Now he needs to be right again by remaining open to going where the research on the jail consolidation leads.