When I read Friday’s front-page article “Officials put forth proposal for jails,” I felt compelled to debunk some of the statements contained within, at least as they pertain to Waldo County.

First is the idea of voter participation or the oft-used term “local control” of county decisions. If this were not so absurdly ridiculous it would be laughable. Here is how local control works in Waldo County. A few years ago there was a referendum on the ballot for a new jail in Waldo County. By a very large percentage the voters overwhelmingly voted against a new jail. What did the Waldo County commissioners do? They went and bought land for a new jail anyway, regardless of the will of their constituents!

How did they pay for this property? They redirected hundreds of thousands of dollars from the county jail appropriation. This money could have gone into maintenance at the current county jail, perhaps alleviating the current need to transport prison inmates to facilities outside of Waldo County.

Since that time thousands upon thousands of precious county tax dollars have been spent trying to reformulate this new jail plan and sell it to Waldo County voters. This is so outrageous that there should be a recall of the county commissioners. So much for “local control!”

Now we are told the Maine County Commissioners’ Association and Maine Sheriffs’ Association are spending yet more money on “consultants” in a bid to keep county commissioners’ turf intact. Don’t kid yourselves. That is what the MCCA-MSA effort is all about. Cost effectiveness has nothing to do with opposing the governor’s consolidation plan. No officials on the public payroll will willingly cede control of their power base.

Let us debunk another statement by Robert Howe, who represents both the commissioners’ association and the sheriffs’ association at the Legislature. He says, “It is the state prison system that is in crisis. Not the counties.” How absurd is that! If the Waldo County prison system isn’t in crisis then why are the county commissioners proposing to spend millions on a new prison?

Then there is a new 13-member board that the MCCA-MSA is proposing. Mr. Howe says, “A joint authority would be empowered to either issue or deny certificates of need for new jails, make sensible, maximum use of beds and have the authority to assure cost-effective purchasing.” This statement refutes Mr. Howe’s own statement earlier that the governor’s plan relieves taxpayers of a say as to how the money is spent.

Here he has implied that, as opposed to the governor’s plan, the MCCA-MSA proposal would keep “local control” in the hands of county taxpayers but then he goes on to say this new 13-member board would have this power. You just can’t have it both ways!

Next we have Mr. Howe’s concern about keeping prisoners close to their families. What! I’m sorry but I don’t want to pay to keep prisoners nice and cozy near family. We should have an informal opinion poll on that one, folks.

Let us debunk another claim. Mr. Howe, again, says “part of the governor’s plan is to close four jails, including Waldo County, a recently constructed $2.4 million facility. If it closed, Waldo County taxpayers would still be paying for that jail.” Waldo County taxpayers, and every other taxpayer in the state, will always have to pay for the jails regardless of who runs them. The idea behind the governor’s plan is to save money through consolidation, eliminating redundancy, bargaining for services, and a host of other worthy money-saving tactics.

Consider this, the new “prison campus” proposed for Waldo County will leave the taxpayers with a much larger debt load than current obligations, by a very long shot. As far as Waldo County goes, it will always be cheaper to transfer prisoners to another, out-of-county facility than it would be to finance $50 million or $100 million on an in-county facility.

Finally, we come to the need for local holding cells and the desire to keep the casual criminal away from the hardened criminals. I don’t dispute this need. However it would be ludicrous to think that all the current facilities would be closed. Some yes, but the idea is to save money while still maintaining a prison system that satisfies the need for correctional and holding facilities. My point, made earlier, is that the county officials don’t want to lose control regardless of how much it costs their constituents and they continue to spend our money in support of their cause.

Then we have Mr. Howe’s earlier claim that Somerset County would be “stuck” with the bill to complete its current project. He makes it sound as though state money is for free! It isn’t. State money – as well as federal, town and county money, regardless of where it comes from – all comes from the same pockets. Your pockets and mine, the taxpayers.

J. Gordon Williamson lives in Prospect