In 2006 Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties floated $24.6 million in bonds to build Two Bridges Regional Jail, a state-of-the-art, 120-inmate county jail in Wiscasset. It replaced Lincoln County’s overcrowded and antiquated 11-cell jail. Sagadahoc County had no jail.

Two Bridges’ expanded capacity ended the high cost of sending Lincoln’s inmate overflow as well as all of Sagadahoc’s jailed population out of county. Its large internal communal areas surrounded by two tiers of cells (as opposed to traditional cell block corridors) cut the number of supervising deputies by 70 percent, critical as personnel costs make up 80 percent of a jail’s budget.

And, the estimated occupancy of 35 inmates from each county (total 70) left 50 of the 120 beds available to rent out near term as well as to accommodate future expansion. At the then prevailing $85 per night bed rate, those 50 extra beds would yield $1.5 million annually, covering up to 75 percent of the debt service on the jail’s construction bonds.

(Each county pays $1 million, or half of the jail’s $2 million annual debt service, and $2.4 million or half of its $4.8 million operating costs, or in total about a third of each county’s annual overall $10 million budget.)

Somerset County also built a new modern jail and York and Cumberland similarly upgraded theirs, anticipating renting out extra capacity to reduce bond debt service or operating costs. So with new, efficient jails and attractive business plans, the five counties and their taxpayers were pleased.

2008: Enter Augusta

The Baldacci administration, bent on tax savings through consolidation (remember school consolidation!), turned its focus on the county’s 15 jails and the state’s six prisons. It proposed that the governor’s commissioner of corrections administer them as one system.

The sheriffs who run the jails and the county commissioners who oversee the jails and pay the bills, rose up in protest, citing the need for local control and local administration — exactly why school boards howled against school consolidation.

Their arguments centered on the difference between state prisons, which house hardened, long term criminals, and county jails, which handle primarily local residents being held for trial or serving short term misdemeanor sentences up to 90 days.

Also, these latter inmates are often excellent candidates for programs combating recidivism (rearrest), perhaps the biggest hidden cost in criminal justice today. These programs include drug and alcohol rehab, job skills training, high school GED certification and work release, but need reenforcement by families visiting and living nearby. Mixing in state prisoners with county inmates is disruptive.

To keep county jails separate, the state countered with a “board of corrections” and manned it with a majority of county representatives: a sheriff, a county commissioner, a county administrator, a town selectman and a jail administrators (total five), offsetting the influence of two governor-appointed members of the public, a state public health official and the state’s commissioner of corrections. Gov. Baldacci charged the BOC with bringing about cost-saving efficiencies through common procurement, standardized budgeting and modern programming.

He also gave the BOC little authority and doomed it to fail.

Which it has, as jails and counties ignored directives, squabbled over funds and, in the case of Somerset county, hauled the board of corrections into court and won when the judge ruled the BOC did not have the authority to enforce its writ.

The Baldacci administration also cash-starved the jails.

First, the state assured the county jails that they did not need to set aside funds for capital repairs and maintenance. It said it would set up a capital reserve matching what the jails paid servicing debt. Then it simply ignored this pledge. The jails were left to scramble to repair roofs or overhaul faulty control systems and the like out of operating funds or, more often, simply postpone action.

Second, the state assured the counties that they would never pay a dollar more to run the jails than what they spent in 2008 (the so called “cap”). The state would cover any overages.

The state figured it actually would never have to subsidize the county jails beyond 2008 levels because the board of corrections would force cost savings through budgetary discipline.

Except the board of corrections lacked enforcement power, so many jails (not Two Bridges) ignored its directives and costs continued to rise, particularly union contracts tracking inflation. So starting in 2010, the state arbitrarily flat lined the jail’s budgets and stopped covering increased costs. County jails again had no choice but to cannibalize reserves or operating funds or cut staff. Two Bridges is currently down nine deputies on the floor (a serious safety liability), and the counties, not the state, carry the risk.

Third: the real stinger. The state ruled in 2008 that the four super jails would have to raise capacity to take on out-of-county prisoners (Two Bridges from 120 to 185) while reducing their daily $85 per cell rental charge to in effect $27. That cost Two Bridges roughly $500,000 of its extra bed revenue budgeted to service debt. To rub salt into wounds, the state immediately dumped its surplus state prisoners on the four mega county jails at an immediate $3 million annual savings at the $27 daily rate.

Today the system is close to financial collapse.

Gov. Paul LePage threatened last fall to eliminate the BOC and take over the county jails completely, if the BOC and counties could not work out of the mess by themselves. Alternatively, he said he’d hand the jails back to the counties. Either way, the counties would still end up with the debt. The governor told the commissioners at their annual convention last fall he had “no more money for jails.”

The legislature finally appointed a special select committee to arbitrate.

To LePage’s annoyance, the committee, headed up by a former Central Maine Power chairman, turned down the governor’s two options (take-back or give-back) and said the only answer was to strengthen BOC authority to standardize and hold down jail budgets and squeeze out more savings through efficiencies and innovation.

However, that didn’t offer cash relief for the jails or counties. The $27 per night rate would remain: no return to the $85 rate and debt relief. Flat-lining expenses would be dropped and budgets would be allowed to grow beyond the “cap” (perhaps one to two percent a year) but with the county taxpayers picking up the tab, not the state, as originally promised.

A capital reserve account, yes, but not funded by the state, only by the jails coming up with operational savings, which may be difficult given upward pressure on costs after three years of flat-lined budgets. If no savings, then the jails would have to go back to the legislature cap in hand, which is always a crap shoot because of the legislature’s turnover every two years and faulty memory. Finally, the unwieldy and ineffective nine-man BOC with its majority of county and jail officials was scrapped but replaced by a five-man board, again headed by a county sheriff but with a majority of state officials or appointees.

Bottom line: a big swing in control of the county jails back in favor of the state as Baldacci had originally proposed. And most likely higher costs for county jails and higher taxes for county taxpayers.

The county commissioners and sheriffs reluctantly came out in support earlier this month. Better a semblance of control through a reformed BOC than either state takeover or going it alone. Last week the Senate and House of Representatives passed Law 1834 reflecting this compromise. Despite apparently veto-proof margins in the Senate (31-4) and House (131-16), LePage has threatened a veto. (His recent comments have indicated he’d really like to take over the county jails.)

However, when a legislative body votes to overrun a governor’s veto, beware: the governor’s party (currently the GOP) in both houses will often rally and reverse their votes to sustain the veto. That would require eight changing votes in the Senate and 35 in the House. Not likely as indicated by those 31-4 and 131-16 margins, but stay tuned.

Either way, it doesn’t look like the taxpayers of Lincoln County have much joy in store.

UPDATE: Gov. LaPage's veto was overturned last Thursday by the Senate 27-8 and the House 126-21. The "Cap" limiting the county share of jail expenses to 2008 levels was reinstated, with the State picking up any overages.