FARMINGTON – Seeking more information about the Franklin County Detention Center’s fate, county commissioners met with two members of a state Board of Corrections subcommittee on Tuesday.

The governor initially called for closing the center as part of a larger budget-cutting measure, but now things are up in the air, Commissioner Gary McGrane told Ralph Nichols, director of internal operations for the state Department of Corrections, and Mike Vitiello, York County’s jail administrator. Both are members of a needs inventory subcommittee.

McGrane organized the meeting to weigh possibilities, including the potential of the center becoming a 72-hour holding facility with longer-term inmates moved to the Somerset County Jail in Skowhegan.

Franklin is the third county with a smaller jail that is working with the needs committee to look at options and develop a plan before the state orders change, Nichols said.

“I’d like to keep things as we have them … we do a good job … however the handwriting is on the wall … something is going to happen, maybe even losing our facility,” Commissioner Fred Hardy said.

While providing services on a larger scale through consolidation helps hold down costs, which jails close are somewhat determined by courts and prosecutor locations, Nichols said. Based on that, Franklin would align with Androscoggin and Oxford counties, but Nichols said Somerset’s new jail, with a 150 inmate capacity that’s averaging 100 inmates, would be closer to Farmington and make more sense to house county inmates.

Commissioners have had some discussions with Somerset officials about costs to board inmates, transportation, close circuit television visits for family members and the potential loss of county employees.

A 72-hour holding facility requires staff, and transporting prisoners takes staff, Nichols said. The facility would require a manager instead of a jail administrator. Some employees could be transferred and the county could lose some jobs through attrition, he said.

Most people arrested here are released through bail or the courts within 72 hours, which limits the number of inmates requiring housing and transportation outside the county, Nichols said.

Whether inmates involved in lengthy trials would need to be transported daily was questioned by Sheriff Dennis Pike.

Every time an inmate leaves the holding facility for court, he would start another 72-hour period when he returned, allowing the prisoner to remain closer to his trial here, Nichols said.

Attending the meeting as an interested citizen although he is a Corrections Board member, Irv Faunce encouraged commissioners to be a part of the process.

“It’s better to choose your own destiny and bring some plan to the table. It’s important that we hear from you … you need to be part of the process.”