By Donna M. Perry
Sun Journal, Lewiston, Maine
FARMINGTON — Franklin County residents will have a chance Wednesday to voice their opinions to a state Board of Corrections on why the Franklin County jail should be returned to full-service.
The jail was full-service for decades prior to the state taking over county jails on July 1, 2009. It was then that the Franklin County Detention Center in Farmington, along with county jails in Waldo and Oxford counties, were downsized to 72-hour holding facilities.
That means that inmates cannot be kept more than 72 hours before they are sent to another jail around the state.
The Maine Board of Corrections will hold the hearing at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the North Dining Hall on South Street at the University of Maine at Farmington.
The purpose of the hearing is to provide stakeholders and members of the public an opportunity to comment on the proposed change to full-service, Michael Tausek, executive director of the Board of Correction said previously.
People will be able to sign in at the hearing to testify and then have an opportunity to speak.
Franklin County commissioners requested the mission change last year and submitted a budget to the Board of Corrections in January.
More than 100 people turned out for a “Give Us Back Our Jail” rally April 10 in front of the county courthouse in Farmington to send their message to the state.
When the state first create the consolidated jail system Franklin County inmates were accepted at Somerset County in Madison to serve longer periods. That changed in March after the state withheld a third-quarter payment to pay for housing other counties inmates due to a dispute over federal money.
A state Corrections Working Group voted April 18 to recommend that the Franklin County jail become a full-service operation as of July 1. The recommendation would give the county the money that had gone to other jails to house Franklin County inmates.
Currently Franklin County taxpayers raise $1.6 million for the jail. Of that amount the county sends about $630,000 to the Board of Corrections to go into the consolidated jail system.
Jail officials claim the county can operate the jail in 2013-14 for $1.589 million, slightly less than the $1.6 million cap set by the state in 2008.
If there were some minor modifications at the jail, it could hold as many as 44 inmates. Otherwise the maximum inmate population is 31.
The Board of Corrections will look at a variety of items prior to making its decision including hearing from county residents, family members of inmates, defense attorneys and others that are affected.
County transport officers have to transport those inmates back to Farmington for court appearances, doctors and other appointments. In April, transportation costs were nearly $125,000, Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols Sr. previously said.
Nichols told county commissioners in May that he is hoping people turn out for the hearing who are affected in one way or another by the current status of the jail including town officials, defense attorneys and family members unable to visit those incarcerated due to the travel distance.