AUGUSTA — Lawmakers are racing the clock to reach a compromise on bills to expand and improve Maine’s prisons, but members of the Corrections Committee remain divided over a key element — a $20 million bond issue.

The panel has less than a week to present a prison bond measure and an omnibus corrections bill to the full House. Unless it does, there may not be enough time for the bills to pass through the legislative process before the session’s end, said Rep. Rita B. Melendy, D-Rockland.

“I think some people are blind and deaf when it comes to following the lead of Maine voters,” Rep. Joseph W. Mayo said Friday after the committee spent several hours trying to work out a compromise.

“They said no to a single issue — a maximum security prison bond issue. They said no by a wide margin. I never second-guess Maine voters,” the Thomaston Democrat said, referring to the defeat of Gov. John R. McKernan’s $35 million bond proposal last November.

McKernan, who lobbied vigorously in support of his 200-bed maximum security prison bond issue, submitted a revised plan this session. The latest plan calls for $20 million in borrowing to finance 125 maximum security cells, a minimum-security facility, two restitution centers and a pre-release center for female inmates.

The committee is trying to hammer out a compromise between the governor’s proposal and its own version.

Despite Mayo’s outright opposition to the prison bond, Melendy and committee co-chairwoman Sen. Beverly Bustin, D-Hallowell, are optimistic a compromise can be reached.

“We’re thinking in terms of long-range plans. The intent was always there, but when it got to the end of the session, we’ve always had to set priorities and deal with crises and put out fires,” Melendy said, adding that the committee is trying to address the concerns of the voters on the corrections plan.

Melendy said Maine residents indicated last fall that they wanted to focus corrections issues at a community level rather than a state prison or maximum-security facility level. She said that is what the committee is working on.