In a special meeting of the Two Bridges Regional Jail Authority held Wednesday, July 1, board members learned two important pieces of information. First, LD 186 has been approved by the legislature. Funding for the state’s jails in 2016, which had been unresolved up to the very last minutes of the current legislative session, has now apparently been resolved.

The second piece of information is that an agreement has been reached to house Waldo County’s 2015/2016 prisoners at TBRJ in return for a lump sum payment of $1.2 million.

LD 186 was finally voted on in the legislature and passed, but not before a number of amendments were made to the original bill, which had been introduced late last winter. The bill provides for the dissolution of the board of corrections and a return of the responsibility for jail operations to each county.

Citing the situation as an “emergency” the amended wording of the bill provides for a tax assessment for correctional services starting July 1.

The terms of the bill set the amount to be collected by counties from municipalities for “correctional services” at a minimum of $62,172,371. The term “correctional services” refers to operational and maintenance costs for the jails but does not include debt service. The assessment to Lincoln County is $2,657,105 and the assessment to Sagadahoc County is the same amount. Because the bill also identified $14.668 million (which has been reduced to $12.202 million by amendment) as an amount to be paid to the jails from the state, the bill prevents a “receiving jail” from charging a “sending jail” a per diem rate to house prisoners.

The bill has now been sent to Gov. Paul LePage’s office for signature or veto.

Additionally, the TBRJ Authority learned that meetings over the past weeks with Waldo County had resulted in an agreement between the counties to board Waldo County’s prisoners for the next year at Two Bridges Regional Jail.  The parties have agreed that Waldo County will pay TBRJ the sum of $1.2 million in the coming year to board their prisoners. Under the terms of the agreement, TBRJ will cover medical and pharmaceutical expenses in additional to board.           

Col. Mark Westrum, correctional administrator, provided authority members with a preliminary budget for July and August, 2015, the first two months of the new fiscal year. The budget as shown indicates a shortfall of $58,350 for the period. The shortfall reflects a lack of information about the amount of state revenue that would be provided to the jail. It is expected that the budget will continue to be revised until the final numbers are determined at the state level.