AUBURN — Androscoggin County commissioners met Wednesday — only six days before the county jail’s budget year ends — to figure out how to pay a just-discovered $70,000 shortfall. “Every bill has been paid, with the exception of one bill that somehow slipped through,” County Treasurer Robert Poulin said. The bill, a $70,519 payment on […]
Sheriff Guy Desjardins
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Sheriffs hope lawmakers override LePage veto of jail bill
AUBURN — A bill to strengthen Maine’s six-year-old network of county jails was scheduled to return to lawmakers Thursday, two days after Gov. Paul LePage vetoed the measure and described its state-county partnership as “doomed to failure.” “The bill masquerades as a fix to the Board of Corrections system, but it is nothing more than […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn
County Jails checking new inmates’ EBT cards
AUBURN — Getting arrested in a growing number of Maine counties, including Androscoggin and Oxford, now includes a check of EBT cards. Since last fall, the jails have discovered dozens of the Electronic Benefit Transfer cards in the possession of arrestees but issued to someone else. The state uses the cards to disburse welfare money, […]
Posted inMaine
Corrections chief calls for state takeover of county jails
AUGUSTA — The state corrections commissioner is calling for a state takeover of Maine’s 15 county jails, saying the system is “on the verge of collapsing.” In a three-page letter distributed Wednesday to the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee, Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte said the state corrections system is “well-positioned to take over the jail operations […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
More cuts at Auburn jail would endanger officer and inmates, commissioners say
AUBURN — Androscoggin County commissioners have given up looking for immediate savings inside the county jail, saying any more cuts would violate law or endanger the safety of inmates and corrections officers. “We’re basically going to throw ourselves to the governor and say, ‘Look, what do we do?’” Chairman Randall Greenwood said. “We got through […]