MADISON – Irving Faunce of Wilton, a member of the state Board of Corrections, was the featured speaker during a recent meeting of the Maine Adult Correctional Education Association at the Somerset County Jail.

Faunce, appointed to the board by Gov. John Baldacci last year, updated the membership on the mission of the board as it carries out its legislative mandate to “design, guide and invest strategically in the development of a unified state and county corrections system.”

The association is an organization of educators who develop and deliver education services to corrections facilities and also advocate for improved programs for inmates who are preparing to re-enter society.

Ray Therrien, director of Adult Education for SAD 9 in Farmington, is MACEA president.

Faunce indicated that the board, a nine-member group of volunteers and state officials, has been at work since September on examining the missions of state and county facilities while it designs a unified system.

At the same time, Faunce said, the board has sought to “achieve efficiencies” while it focuses on its other goals of “reducing recidivism, increasing pretrial diversion and alternative sentencing and reducing the rate of growth in the cost of corrections.”

Mission changes are planned for four of the county jails, Faunce said.

“It is anticipated that correctional facilities in Oxford, Franklin and Piscataquis counties will be converted to 72-hour holding facilities,” Faunce said, “and that the Waldo County Jail will be become s re-entry center for inmates preparing for release from the system.

These “mission changes” are estimated to save the county correctional system “a minimum of $700,000 annually,” he said.

Other improvements, including development of a coordinated inmate transportation system, increased use of video arraignments, consistent statewide use of pretrial and post conviction release programs and the negotiation of a single statewide medical services contract are on the board’s agenda.