FARMINGTON — Franklin County Sheriff Dennis Pike believes the county did a far better job of running the jail effectively and economically for more than 150 years than the state has done since its takeover of county jails in July 2009.

He is hoping that the state allows the Franklin County jail to return to a full-time operational jail instead of the 72-hour holding facility it became three years ago.

Franklin County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to send a letter to the state Board of Corrections proposing that the Franklin County jail be returned to its full-time operation.

Unfortunately, the state’s consolidation of jails into one system statewide was a grand plan but was better for the more populated areas and the southern part of the state than the northern section and rural areas and human beings, Pike said.

In August 2007, Gov. John Baldacci proposed a full state takeover of the county jail system and the closure of four small jails, including those in Franklin and Oxford counties. State corrections officials argued that counties were spending too much money on jails and that the state could do a better job.

A compromise was reached and Franklin and Oxford counties jails stayed open with a new mission of being 72-hour holding facilities. It meant if those in custody did not bail within that time, they were transported to another jail. For Franklin County it was to Somerset County in Madison, about a 40-minute trip from the Farmington jail one-way.

“It is not saving the county any taxpayer money,” jail Manager Doug Blauvelt said Wednesday.

It is costing more to transport inmates and more for overtime, he said.

The county still raises the same amount of money from taxpayers at $1.6 million that they did in 2008. The operational budget has ranged from about $800,000 to $1.1 million since the change was implemented and the rest is sent to the state, county authorities said. The county spent 96.6 percent of the $1.1 million during 2011-12, Clerk Julie Magoon said.

Blauvelt said it was difficult to determine what the average inmate population was prior to the changeover. The jail has housed as many as 54 inmates and less. The maximum capacity was 30 inmates and they averaged about that many prior to 2009, he said.

If the jail was full-time operational Wednesday, Blauvelt said, they would have 47 inmates there.

Now, they can hold up to 15 inmates for 72 hours, Blauvelt said.

That number was exceeded at times Pike said when Franklin County had to recently look for beds for inmates all over the state.

“It was either keep them or turn them loose,” he said, adding he is not in favor of letting them go.

Somerset County had stopped taking inmates from other facilities in May because it was not being reimbursed by the state. In late July, the state and Somerset County reached a compromise and the Madison jail started taking Franklin County inmates again.

When the jail changed missions, people were laid off. Corrections officers and inmates were on the road not just for jail transports but also for doctors appointments, court appearances and more, Pike said.

Both Pike and Blauvelt said it is difficult for inmates and their families because they are separated.

“We’re losing the benefits of having inmates,” Blauvelt said.

Pre-release inmates helped out around the jail by mowing the grass, tending a garden and in other ways, he said. The food from the garden was donated to food pantries.

When the jail was full-time, inmate labor saved the municipalities about $50,000 a year. They mowed cemeteries, worked at the horse rescue farms and worked in the community garden.

The goal of the Franklin County jail is to improve inmates through education and counseling, Blauvelt said.

The jail no longer has those programs to offer people because they stay such a short time.

Blauvelt is working the best he can for the taxpayers, he said.

Both he and Pike said they could operate the jail for the money currently raised by taxpayers, probably less.

“I think the state wasted a lot of money. We wasted a lot of money transporting people around the state,” Blauvelt said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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