FARMINGTON — Selectman Ryan Morgan of Farmington urged Franklin County commissioners Wednesday to allow the jail to hold prisoners more than 72 hours, and not worry about repercussions from state corrections officials.

“Whatever happens, happens,” he said. “They’ll respond. They want their money.”

The county jail in Farmington was taken over by the state Board of Corrections in 2009 and made a 72-hour holding facility instead of a full-time jail. Since then, prisoners held longer than three days have been taken to Somerset County Jail in Madison.

However, last week the Madison jail stopped taking prisoners from other counties because it’s owed at least $280,000 by the state for boarding fees. Somerset County also refused Franklin County prisoners for two months last year until it reached an agreement with the state for overdue reimbursement.

Michael Tausek, executive director of the Board of Corrections, said this week that the board voted to withhold the payment until he and legal counsel for the board and for Somerset County review the aspects of Somerset County’s resolution to use the federal money it gets to house federal inmates to pay the bond for its new $30 million jail.

Board of Corrections representatives plan to tour the jail Thursday or Friday, Tausek said Wednesday.

A bill to return the Farmington jail to full-time status is currently being considered in the state Legislature.

“We want our jail back,” Morgan told commissioners and his fellow members of the Franklin County Budget Advisory Committee who attended the commission’s budget review meeting Wednesday at the county courthouse.

Morgan said people are tired of the county being held hostage.

Sheriff Scott Nichols Sr. said to hold prisoners more than three days they would first need to hire three more corrections officers and consider how to feed them.

Franklin County jail manager Doug Blauvelt said Wednesday that he has been looking for open beds in other jails around the state since March 26. Most of the jails are at capacity, but he did find room at Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn on Wednesday morning for three prisoners. Three more would need to be moved on Thursday morning, he said.

Nichols said he has figures that show the county could run the jail for nearly $1.59 million per year. Currently, taxpayers raise $1.6 million and about $500,000 is sent to the state to subsidize other jails, he said.

Franklin County has spent more than $120,000 in travel and overtime to transport prisoners to other jails in the past year, he said.

He also advised there is some wiggle room in the jail consolidation law that could allow the jail to get rid of the 72-hour limit and become a minimum security facility.

Nichols said he didn’t blame Somerset County Sheriff Barry DeLong for not accepting any more inmates from other counties. Sheriffs around the state are not happy with consolidation, he said.

Budget Advisory Committee members, all selectmen from towns in the county, raised several points:

* Inmates charged with minor crimes and taken to other jails are farther from legal counsel and families.

* Investigators from local police departments have to travel to jails outside the county to interview inmates.

Committee member Mike Pond, a Strong selectman, said it would be good if Nichols could get information to selectmen so that they could do whatever it takes to get the jail back. That could mean a group of 50 or more people holding signs to get their point across, he said.

“It’s just very frustrating when you are not in control of your own destiny,” Nichols said. Maybe it is time for some peaceful, civil disobedience in Franklin County, he said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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