Jails eye a potential cash cow;

Extra beds can be rented out to solve other counties' overflows - but sheriffs warn the income isn't reliable.

by Mark Peters
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
January 18, 2004

Sheriff Philip Cote knows the new York County Jail could become a moneymaker.

When the jail opened a week ago, Cote only had 138 inmates in a facility that can hold 325. That leaves the county with dozens of beds it could rent at a rate comparable to that of a beachfront hotel in the off-season. Potential customers like the federal government and other counties already have shown interest.

York County officials plan to spend some time getting used to the jail in Alfred before deciding whether to rent cells. But with budget officials already asking for projections on how much revenue the new jail could produce, the county is expected to enter the lucrative, and at times volatile, business of housing inmates for money.

The jail would become part of a burgeoning Maine market that sees prisoners as a commodity, valued for their ability to generate income and hold down rising property taxes.

"It is very tempting to open the doors and say, 'Let's bring in the revenue,' " Cote said.

During the last six months, Cumberland County opened 58 mothballed cells in part to house federal prisoners and inmates from other counties at $104 a day. Lincoln and Sagadahoc County voters also approved a new jail with twice as many beds as the counties need, hoping to capitalize on the demand for jail beds.

Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion sees his job some days as being more like the manager of a hotel than the county's top law enforcement official. This year, Cumberland County projects the jail will make $2.9 million, which reduces the amount of property taxes the county collects from cities and towns.

Some county officials see money from bed rentals as a reliable way for counties to supplement their budgets. That's because they expect Maine's prison population will continue to grow, creating a constant need for additional beds. Dion, however, says the counties in fact could be headed for a competitive inmate market as York County opens its jail this year and Sagadahoc and Lincoln do the same in 2006.

Competition "exists to a certain extent now. It will only be aggravated if people build jails on the premise that they will generate lots of revenue," Dion said.

Each day, the brokering of inmates between counties happens over the phone. Counties with overcrowded jails appeal to those with extra beds, paying daily boarding fees that vary depending on the jail. For example, Cumberland charges $104 a day, while Kennebec charges $80 a day. The Maine Sheriffs Association is looking into creating a Web site so sheriffs can track available beds online.

"Some people want government to run like a business. They should come to a sheriff's office," Dion said.

Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett on most days is looking for five to 10 prison beds, comparing them by price, proximity and, most importantly, availability. The Lincoln County Jail holds 21 inmates, which often is too little for the number of arrestees, probation violators and others serving sentences of nine months or less.

Brackett plans to find Lincoln County on the other side of this equation in 2006, when Lincoln and Sagadahoc open their new jail. The counties' need for 120 beds was based on projections that their inmate population would grow over the long term. In the short term, the jail is expected to bring in $9 million over the next 20 years in rental fees.

Brackett and his fellow sheriffs, however, are quick to point out that the money the jail takes in from boarding inmates comes with costs and liabilities. Additional inmates require additional guards, more meals, an increase in medical care and the potential for more lawsuits.

If done correctly, sheriffs see boarding prisons as a good business practice. Volatility, however, exists in trying to determine the number of future inmates. If the inmate population gets too low, there will be few counties looking to board inmates, and if the inmate population gets too high, county jails will have no beds to rent out. Also, the federal government can change its policies, affecting the number of inmates boarded at county jails.

The inmate population in county jails has grown from 862 to 1,554 since 1994, according to a study done by the Maine Department of Corrections. The department, however, projects the jail population will level off. Also, sheriff departments are working to decrease the number of probation violators, mentally ill and substance abusers in jail.

All of these factors could result in a limited pool of inmates for which several counties will compete. Cote, the York County sheriff, said he is looking at the day rates of other counties when figuring out how much his county should charge. He knows his jail is at a competitive disadvantage because York County Jail is removed from many of Maine's other 15 counties. Cote, however, sees certain advantages in the new facility, including its video visitation system, which allows inmates from far-off counties to visit with family using video monitors.

"I would hope other counties would look at that as a real advantage," Cote said.

Kennebec County, on the other hand, has become an example of how important outside inmates can be to taxpayers and what happens when they are no longer there.

For more than a decade, Kennebec took in the 30 to 35 prisoners from Sagadahoc County, which does not have its own jail. But last year, Kennebec had to stop taking most of these inmates because its jail was overcrowded. This left a $350,000 hole in the county budget, which county commissioners filled by boosting their tax assessment from cities and towns by 12.5 percent.

"I really would hesitate to count on those revenues. There is a day when (inmates) are going to stop," Kennebec County Sheriff Robert Devlin said.

[The Press Herald later issued a correction to this story: "A story Sunday on Page 1B should have identified Everett B. Flannery Jr. as the Kennebec County sheriff. It was a reporter's error."]