A national organization has agreed to a request from Androscoggin County to help with a feasibility study for a potential regional jail that could stem ever-rising jail costs.

County Administrator Jeffrey Chute had contacted the National Institute of Corrections to request assistance with the study involving Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford counties.

Chute told Androscoggin County commissioners last week the institute approved the request and will offer its services for no cost to help the counties find a consultant. A meeting with an institute representative is scheduled for later this month.

The counties’ three sheriffs, Eric Samson of Androscoggin County, Scott Nichols Sr. of Franklin County and Christopher Wainwright of Oxford County, had previously submitted a proposal to commissioners in each county to consider a study of the jails and a potential centralized 500-inmate facility.

All three counties are facing severe overcrowding at their respective jails, forcing them to pay $95 or more per day per inmate for boarding at other facilities, as well as rising maintenance costs for their aging jails and other rising costs.

Androscoggin and Franklin counties have signed on to the idea of a study and put aside money for a consultant. Oxford County commissioners put aside $40,000 for their county’s share of a joint study, but have not officially endorsed the effort.

“We have not taken any action on this process this year other than to allocate funds if needed,” said Oxford County Administrator Zane Loper in an email Tuesday.

“Jail funding is the single most important piece of county funding, as it has to do with property tax. Yet it is the most volatile and unpredictable,” Loper wrote. “At the county level we do everything we can to mitigate the impact on property tax. However, jail funding is beyond our control.”

Building a new jail either in Oxford County or as a tri-county project is all about funding, he said. It is extremely difficult to look at jail projects if you do not know your ability to fund, he wrote. It is a large risk for taxpayers and they want to be cautious when exploring options.

“Oxford County is always open to look at avenues to save our property taxpayers money,” Loper wrote. “We continue to gather information on this project and will participate in any joint meetings regarding this project.”

Androscoggin County’s Chute wrote a letter to the state Legislature earlier this year on behalf of Androscoggin County commissioners to emphasize “the urgent need for increased sustainable state funding” for the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.

“The financial pressures we face in Androscoggin County due to the jail funding are real, growing and increasingly unattainable,” wrote Chute, a former jail administrator.

The key financial realities are that the “Androscoggin County Jail’s lack of state funding is forcing the county to carry a budget deficit of $1.2 million,” he wrote. “The costs are related to overcrowding, operational costs, increased contract costs, and inmate boarding. Each year the county must cover a significant shortfall just to maintain basic operations.”

More than half of Maine’s county jails are in buildings constructed more than 100 years ago, according to a study done by the Maine County Corrections Professional Standards Council. The total county jail system’s average daily population has risen 22% in the past five years, according to the council’s report. It went from 1,364 in 2021 to 1,660 in 2025, according to the study.

The jail in Auburn is rated at 160 beds but routinely houses more by boarding out some inmates at other facilities. On Tuesday, there were 168 people in custody at the Androscoggin County Jail and eight of them were boarded at Somerset County Jail in Madison, Samson said.

At Franklin County’s 39-bed facility in Farmington, two inmates were boarded out; at Oxford County Jail, which has 47 beds, 13 people were boarded out on Tuesday.

For the third straight year, the Legislature appropriated $4 million more for jail operations than its $20.3 million baseline funding. Jail representatives had asked for nearly $30 million total because of rising costs and more burden on taxpayers to pay for jail operations.

Those leaders said the funding level this year is putting the burden on local taxpayers, many of whom are also facing higher municipal and school budgets.

“While we appreciate that funding did not decrease, flat funding continues to present significant challenges for county jails,” Franklin County’s Nichols said previously.