March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Juvenile hall mandate protested

ROCKLAND — County Commissioners reacted with disdain to a recent state mandate requiring them to provide a juvenile detention facility.

Having already committed taxpayers to a $4.9 million state-mandated county jail, commissioners blanched when told of the mandate to have a juvenile hall on line by Jan. 1. Commissioner Mason Johnson suggested solving the problem by letting the state take over the old jail.

“I submit that we give the state the old jail. They can staff it, they can run it and they can take it over tomorrow,” Johnson said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’m glad they came up with another mandate.”

Although the commissioners protested the mandate, County Sheriff Daniel Davey and Jail Administrator Raymond Voyer viewed it as a way to expand the county’s corrections department. The said three neighboring counties might be willing to contribute to the cost of operating such a facility.

“I can’t sit here and gripe about it,” Voyer said of the mandate. “We don’t have a lot of time. We can’t afford a committee.”

Davey informed the commission that he had already contacted the sheriffs of Waldo, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties to inquire if they were interested in pooling their resources to establish a four-county juvenile facility in the old jail. Davey said the three sheriffs were under the same mandate as Knox County.

“The four counties will meet to discuss pooling resources,” Davey said. “We’ll put a plan together for you once we talk to the others. … It’s possible this will be the county to hold juveniles under a four-county agreement.”

Voyer agreed. He revealed that during discussions he had with state Department of Corrections officials it was “hinted that this (the old jail) would make a great place for juvenile detention”

Davey and Voyer met with jail administrators from the three counties Wednesday afternoon. They agreed to expand the discussions provided the state was prepared to give the counties a “time variance.” on the Jan. 1 deadline.

“We will be meeting with the sheriffs and the county commissioners after we run things by the DOC, (Department of Corrections),” Davey said.

Johnson scoffed at the idea of even attempting to convert the old jail into a juvenile center by the January deadline. He suggested that state officials had lost all contact with reality.

“It just seems so crazy,” Johnson said. “No matter that they’ve got a $125 million deficit to deal with. Now they want to get the county in the same situation.”

Commissioner Gene Kenniston predicted that if state inspectors ever got an opportunity to give the old jail the once-over the county would end up footing the bill.

“I’m sure that that building out there isn’t going to meet their standards and is going to end up costing the county megabucks.”

The commissioners also approved the following expenditures at the new jail.

$12,000 from funds confiscated during drug investigations to purchase the computer softwear needed to develop a joint dispatch-records system with Rockland and Camden police

$2,511 for 35 recording tapes and an erasing system for the purpose of recording daily calls to the dispatch center.

$2,000 for a one-year maintenance contract for the dispatch-records system.

$1,100 for two typewriters with stands.

$1,440 for six telephones ($240 each), bringing the total number of phones at the facility to 12 phones for corrections and 12 phones for the sheriff’s department.

$324 to install six outside phone lines ($54 each), to the facility.


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