AUBURN — Androscoggin County leaders want to see if money might be saved by creating a closer link between the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn and Oxford County’s 72-hour holding facility in South Paris.

“Even if that savings is $50,000 to $100,000, that’s real money at this point, given how little money is available from the state to the whole system,” said Jonathan LaBonte, the Androscoggin County Commissioner from Auburn who is driving the talks.

“I think the financial realities now warrant us to have a conversation,” LaBonte said. “It may not mean an Androscoggin County takeover of an Oxford County facility, but our facilities are now linked at the hip in terms of delivery of service.”

Since 2009, when the state adopted its “one Maine, one system” network of jails, the jails in Auburn and South Paris quickly changed. The Oxford County jail became a temporary place to hold people who are arrested or waiting for court with a maximum stay of 72 hours. Most of the remaining prisoners went to Androscoggin County.

Randall Greenwood, the chairman of the Androscoggin County Commission, said he plans to make the first step in the coming days with a formal invitation to Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant and Steven Merrill, the chairman of the Oxford County Commission.

“If there is a way to consolidate money, that’s what we’re looking for,” Greenwood said.

Gallant said Tuesday he is willing to listen.

“We welcome anything that can streamline and save money,” he said. But he had not heard about LaBonte’s proposed talks, first discussed in an Androscoggin County Commission meeting.

“As far as I know, I’m the sheriff of Oxford County and I am the keeper of the jail in Oxford County, not Commissioner LaBonte in Androscoggin County,” Gallant said.

He also said any changes would have to be approved by the state’s Board of Corrections, which now has the final authority over the county jails in Maine.

“It would be something that the BOC would have to act on or vote on,” Gallant said.

And there is already a tight working relationship between the two counties, he said.

Since the county jail system changed, Gallant believes much of the hassle has landed on Androscoggin. Prisoners who are often under the influence are typically undergoing withdrawal from drugs when they arrive in Auburn and need medical treatment, he said.

“By the time they get there after 72 hours, they’re starting to get D.T.’s,” Gallant said.

Like Gallant, Desjardins said he is happy to talk about savings, but he wonders what kind of impact further consolidation would have on an already tough-to-implement system.

Transporting prisoners has become a huge task for both counties, since inmates need to meet court dates. Staff spend many hours driving between facilities in South Paris and Lewiston and courts in Bridgton, South Paris and Rumford. Oxford County inmates also need to go to Lewiston and Farmington from time to time.

“Here in Oxford County, we process close to 2,000 prisoners each year,” Gallant said.

However, LaBonte figures a precedent for consolidation already exists.

Before the state system was created, Sagadahoc and Lincoln counties signed the agreement that created Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. The counties built and staff the jail together.

“We could have a regional approach and offer two facilities out of it,” LaBonte said. “Individual counties need to find ways to work with other individual counties to deliver their services.”

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