February 15, 2025
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State, county Down East jail eyed

MACHIAS – The state wants to build a new facility that would combine the Bucks Harbor prison and Washington County Jail into one unit, Gov. John Baldacci announced Tuesday.

The governor and his entourage toured the Downeast Correctional Facility in Bucks Harbor and the Washington County Jail on Tuesday and learned firsthand something that prisoners and correctional staff at those institutions have known for a long time – the prison and jail are antiquated and in need of replacement.

“A joint facility would be a shining example of the collaborative efforts between the state and the counties and would provide a model for the rest of the state,” Baldacci said. “The new facility would provide more effective programs in a safer environment and would be more efficient.”

In 1981, the Maine Sheriffs’ Association recommended the county build a new jail. Instead, the county commissioners at the time decided it would be cheaper to renovate the existing facility that was built in the 1800s – in the days when the sheriff lived upstairs and his wife cooked the meals for prisoners.

A $3 million addition was built in 1987 and even though the county had hired an architect and jail consultant to make it functional, the revamped jail has been besieged by problems since it opened. The jail addition was built to last 50 years and has barely survived 20.

The current jail has housed as many as 80 prisoners at one time – from murderers to bad-check artists – even though with the addition it was built to hold 36 prisoners.

The Downeast Correctional Facility in Bucks Harbor located just down the road from the Washington County Jail also is in rough shape and ready to be mothballed, officials say. The facility started out as the former U.S. Air Force 907th Radar Squadron. It was later converted to a prison and now houses more than 250 men.

Baldacci said he wants an architect hired and on the job by the end of June.

Once all of the state and county officials have signed off on the project, he would like the matter to go before the Legislature in January. But the question remains can the governor come up with the millions of dollars that will be needed to build the new facility? He says he can.

“There are opportunities to do different kinds of financing, but first we’ve got to find out what it is we are going to be building and building it in a way that the county and state feel comfortable about doing and then going forward in terms of the financing,” he said. “I really do want to get it done. Both of these facilities are in need of substantial repair. If we can do a joint facility we can probably save the taxpayers [money] over the longer term both at the county and at the state level.”

During his two tours Tuesday, the governor got an eyeful and earful.

In the prison, he found broken toilets and narrow hallways.

In the jail, the governor noticed how sweltering it was because the ventilation system – what little there is – is antiquated and inadequate. “I was up in the older part of the jail and it was stuffy and muggy and its not even summer time yet, so I can’t imagine what that’s like in the summertime,” the governor said.

The Maine Department of Corrections for more than a year has been engaged with regional officials and state representatives to begin laying out the detailed work involved in building a new 425-bed jail-prison facility. A stakeholder meeting held last fall produced a number of ideas about the type of facility and programs that could be built.

The next steps in developing the facility include contracting for a conceptual design of the building. Location and financing are also major issues to be resolved.

The governor said the legislation signed into law this session, based on his proposal to seek efficiencies in state and county corrections, would guide the process for a new Washington County correctional facility. The law created a nine-member State Board of Corrections that will establish a “Certificate of Need” process to consider future state and county corrections capital construction projects.

“We are committed to putting this proposal forward jointly with Washington County,” the governor said.

In the long run, he said, it would cost the state and county less money because the combined facility would be state-of-the art.


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