AUBURN – After years of burgeoning budgets and crowded cell blocks, the Androscoggin County Jail is easing crowding at other Maine jails by boarding their crooks.

And it’s making a little money, too.

In the first six months of 2004, the jail earned about $100,000 by filling some of its now-empty bunks with inmates from other jails, particularly from Somerset, Knox and Lincoln counties.

“This money is going to help us reduce the amount we need from taxes,” said John Lebel, the administrator of the Auburn jail.

It may also buy a little goodwill.

As recently as 2002, the local jail was full. It’s 142-bed capacity once ballooned to 165.

Costs rose. In 2003, leaders budgeted $75,000 to board local inmates in other counties where space was available.

The money was never spent, though. The number of inmates fell. The jail began new alternative-sentencing programs, which helped relieve the crowding.

In 2003, more than $20,000 was raised by taking other counties’ inmates. This year, revenue is nearly five times higher.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Elmer Berry, chairman of the Androscoggin County Commission. “They are not letting those cells sit empty.”

Officials from other areas are grateful.

In the same period that the Auburn jail drew its $100,000 revenue, the Lincoln County Jail has spent that much, boarding inmates here and elsewhere.

That jail has room for only 21 inmates. Yet, on average, Lincoln County has custody of 31 people each day, said Brian Lawrence, administrator of the Wiscasset facility.

So Lawrence sends people to Auburn, to the Cumberland County Jail in Portland and even to the Aroostook County Jail.

Part of the issue is price.

Aroostook County charges $80 per day for each inmate. Androscoggin County charges $85. Cumberland County, which has the newest jail of the three, charges $103.97.

When the Auburn jail has the room, Lebel accepts men and women who have no medical problems and need only a minimum-security bunk.

Lebel sometimes has space in his maximum and medium security areas, but he won’t take the inmates. He doesn’t want to tax his staff more than he needs to, he said.

By contrast, the Portland jail, which also boards federal prisoners, has the capacity to accept “the worst of the worst,” said Lawrence, the Lincoln County Jail administrator.

“They can deal with anything we send them,” he said.

In Auburn, Lebel said he has worked too hard to ease the crowding in the jail for his staff to burn out on high-stress inmates.

Alternative sentencing

He credits much of the population decline on the expansion of alternative-sentencing programs.

Last year, first-time offenders of some nonviolent crimes were given a new choice. Instead of jail, they could spend their time working at local schools. The alternative expands on a program that was created for people convicted of operating under the influence.

It will be further expanded this fall. Inmates are scheduled to work for the county and the cities of Lewiston and Auburn on a variety of projects.

Meanwhile, Androscoggin County leaders will begin thinking about the new revenue. They are uncertain when the money will be available to relieve the jail’s costs.

The revenue will likely be part of the county’s annual audit in 2005, allowing it to be figured into the 2006 budget, Lebel said.

Anything will help, said County Commissioner Patience Johnson. However, she warned that the jail population could rise again.

“We’re cautious, because it might shift back again,” Johnson said. “We’re lucky to get the money.”