An agreement has been reached between Governor John Baldacci the Maine County Commissioner Association (MCCA) and the Maine Sheriff's Association (MSA) to create a new structure for the Department of Corrections and county jails.

The compromise was reached over this past weekend in Augusta and presented at a legislative hearing on Monday, before the Criminal Justice and the Public Safety Committee. Lawmakers will hold work sessions on the proposed plan beginning February 4.

Commissioner Sheridan Bond and Sheriff Todd Bracket represented Lincoln County. Sagadahoc County Sheriff Mark Westrum was a very active participant in the negotiations also.

Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties, along with most of the counties in the state have been opposed to the state's proposal to take over the county jails, concerned that whatever savings there would be for the state would have to be made up by local taxpayers. The proposal would have hit taxpayers in Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties hard, due to additional costs of transportation, loss of revenue, and the debt service on the new jail, according to county officials. According to the governor's earlier plan, the counties would have to pay off the debt on the new Two Bridges Regional jail, but the state would own it.

The compromise, posted on the Department of Correction's website, is a 44-page document. Under the new system, county employees will stay county employees, and the day- to-day operations of the Two Bridges Regional Jail will remain with the Lincoln/Sagadahoc Jail Authority, while the other county jails will remain with the county sheriffs.

In the compromise the state will assume the debt service of the counties, about $10.25 million per year, and will cap property tax assessments at their 2008 budget jail cost. The state will restore $4.6 million of the subsidy to the counties for the fiscal year 2009.

According to the agreement, the jails that can accommodate federal inmates will be able to keep the revenue received from housing these boarders. In return the counties will provide 100 beds to the state without charge, effective July 8, 2008.

According to the written agreement, tax relief will come in several ways. There will no longer be the need for the state and five counties to build more jails or more capacity to take care of overcrowding, this alone will save taxpayers an estimated $100 million in capital construction; the freezing of assessment for corrections at the current rate.

Currently inmates with sentences nine months or less can be kept in the county jail, and over nine months the offenders go to a state facility. Under the new proposed plan, several of the county jails within the state will be able to keep inmates up to one year.

However, there are areas of the proposal that are being looked at, and may be re-negotiated. An area of concern for the Two Bridges Regional Jail is the population rating of 225 inmates. The jail's administrator, Colonel Leonard LeGrand said, "There is no way we could house 225 inmates without giving up program space." Therefore, it is going to be reviewed again.

Another area that is being given another look is the proposal for "specialized functions" at Two Bridges Regional Jail. The proposal says, "This facility (Two Bridges) will also hold a specialized forensic/behavioral unit capable of managing male inmates with more severe mental health problems. Additionally, specialized substance abuse treatment programming for males will be offered at this facility."

During a telephone interview with LeGrand, he said, "Discussions are continuing in a positive light with the state," he said. He is confident the concerns of the counties can be worked out.

Under the compromise, there will be a nine-member State Board of Corrections created to determine the best use for county jails, approve budgets, and develop uniform policy and procedures for consistent system-wide pre-trail, revocation and re-entry practices.

The nine-member board will consist of one sheriff, selected from three nominations submitted to the Governor by MSA; one county commissioner also selected from three nominations submitted by the MCCA; two representatives will represent the state; and five representatives will be chosen at-large by the governor.

All representatives will be appointed by the governor and are subject to confirmation by the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety.

The board's duties will be: determine individual facility use and appropriate staffing levels at each facility; set yearly growth limits for each county and approve any budget request to exceed set limit; establish a "Certificate of Need" process for any future state or county capital construction projects; implement (where appropriate) bulk purchasing of commodities and services; focus on re-investment strategies to achieve better outcomes for offenders; and develop a plan for deploying a system-wide information management system.

In the press release from the governor's office, the governor said, "The goal all along has been to create a new system that is more efficient, but that also delivers better rehabilitative services to the men and women in our care. I want to thank the counties and sheriffs for their willingness to work hard toward a better way of managing corrections in the state. The agreement over the weekend took a good-faith effort by both sides, and I'm grateful that we are near a solution that will work for everyone, especially Maine taxpayers."

When the Lincoln/Sagadahoc Jail Authority meets at the Two Bridges Regional Jail on Route 1 in Wiscasset on February 6 at 4 p.m., the proposed agreement is expected to be up for discussion.