PARIS — Sheriff Christopher Wainwright told the Oxford County Commission that returning the county jail in Paris to a full-service facility would be “feasible.”
Inmates held for more than 72 hours are transported to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset, which costs Oxford County about $700,000 a year for boarding.
The contract for 2018-19 will be up in June and negotiations for a new one have begun. Wainwright said the county will likely agree to a one-year contract for the 2019-20 fiscal year.
The county first entered into the contract in 2016.
Wainwright told the commissioners Tuesday that returning the jail to a full-service operation would be economical.
The jail budget is $2.56 million. An estimate provided to commissioners indicated a full-service jail would cost $2.69 million, a $128,896 increase.
Wainwright said that number could come down if the cost of the jail’s medical services and food are less than estimated.
“It might be close to a wash,” Wainwright said.
If the jail becomes full-service, it would add five corrections officers and the services an on-site nurse and a physician assistant once a week.
Wainwright said MEDPRO, a Maine-based company that provides medical services to the Somerset and Franklin County jails, gave the county a $180,000 estimate, a number Wainwright said could be “honed down,” depending on the need.
Wainwright said the cost for feeding inmates, estimated at $250,000, is based on a projected of 40 inmates eating three meals a day. He said Jail Administrator Dana Dillingham is looking at the possibility of hiring a food service company for meals.
Dillingham also said that a new holding cell would have to be added; the jail has only one. He indicated that a room, with a few security modifications, could be adapted at minimal cost.
Wainwright said the value of adding five jobs to Oxford County, and the value of giving inmates a chance to give back to the community, would be significant.
“At one point, we had a good (inmate) workforce out there in the community from here, with the recycling center, schools, Public Works and on-ground here. I think there’s a number of things of value to the county and its citizens,” he said.
Commissioners agreed to consider the idea and Wainwright proposed additional budget workshops for the potential switch.
Part of that equation, Wainwright said, is figuring out the yearly costs of the full-service jail.
“I want to know what it’s going to cost year one, but I also want to know what it’s going to cost year three, year five, seven, 10 — all the way down the road,” he said.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
