Local officials tour county jail
Local officials tour county jail
By Amanda Estes
Staff writer
In an ongoing initiative to make county government more transparent to the public, Cumberland County officials invited municipal and state officials to take a tour of the Cumberland County Jail in Portland this week
Jail Administrator Major Francine Breton led the tour along with Sheriff Mark Dion, County Manager Peter Crichton, Commissioner Richard Feeney and Captain Wayne Pike. Municipal officials included Councilor Maxine Beecher and City Manager Ted Jankowski from South Portland and councilors Mary Ann Lynch and David Backer from Cape Elizabeth. Jack Berman, a private citizen from South Portland, was also present.
"County government is the middle layer and most people don't understand much about it," said Commissioner Richard Feeney. “Councilors serve on the county's budget advisory committee and when they first come aboard, some don't even know where the county office is."
The purpose of the tour was to make municipal officials aware of how the jail operates and how it affects the county budget. Breton led the group through the general housing or minimum security area, the maximum security area, the kitchen, the master control or surveillance area and the medical unit.
The focus of the tour was the medical unit and the drastic increase in inmate medical costs that is currently driving the county budget. In 2000, the jail’s medical costs were $750,000 and this year, Dion said the county was scheduled to spend $2.9 million, which will mostly be used to provide inmates with antipsychotic drugs.
“The problem is that people come in on pre-prescribed meds and the jail is obligated to continue those meds,” said Feeney.
“I spend more time functioning as a paradoctor than as a police officer,” Dion said. “Two-thirds of the inmates require antipsychotic drugs and six percent have persistent chronic mental illnesses. At one point in June, 100 percent of the detainees required antipsychotic drugs. “
“We did 710 medical intakes last year and 600 out of those were referrals to the psychiatric department,” said Diane North, the health services administrator at the jail.
The medical unit, which serves more than 500 inmates, has four patient units, one exam room and one dental suite that also serves as a meeting place, office space and storage space.
“We are working in cramped quarters,” said North.
The unit is also equipped with a negative pressure unit, which is used to isolate inmates with contagious illnesses such as tuberculosis. North said that the medical department should have at least two negative pressure units. Medical services also lacks an x-ray machine, which means an inmate must be transported to and from another facility at the county’s expense.
Dion also said that when an inmate requires serious medical attention such as surgery, he requires two deputies “on the person, 24/7.” A low risk inmate requires one deputy.
In the mental health department, there are two full-time mental health clinicians and one full-time substance abuse counselor. Dion said physicians and psychiatrists are available on a limited basis and second to funding for medications, the jail needs more funding for nurses and other medical staff.
Dion said that the “mental health system has been defaulted to the jail” due to several factors including the lack of a public health system to recognize and treat mental illness when an individual first exhibits symptoms. The state has also neglected to recognize inmates as mentally ill, which Dion said prevents the jail from receiving state funds.
In 2000, the Portland Police Department received local grants through the Maine chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) to fund crisis intervention team training (CIT) to help officers identify signs of serious mental illness, which Dion said “ gives the appearance that we’re managing the problem.”
CIT trained officers consult with the placement of inmates, but Dion said the program is “asking the police officers to practice the best medicine they know how.”
“I invited the state in to look at jail files because they said I was a politician, exaggerating, but they left quietly because I wasn’t lying. Cumberland County spends an average of $4,200 per inmate compared to the national average of $1,800 to $2,000 per inmate,” he said.
“The state has left funding where it was in 1999,” said Crichton. “It hasn’t recognized the increase in costs. The revenue we take in hasn’t changed that much, it’s gone from $3 million to $5 million.”
The revenue is generated from leasing beds to other counties as well as the federal government. Dion said the federal government is the jail’s largest customer and U.S. Marshals reserved 25 beds, but at his last check, there were 103 federal inmates in the jail.
Dion also said, “All the work that can be done by prisoners is done by prisoners and I figure that is $400,000 in labor given back to the jail. Prisoners also perform over $1 million of labor outside of the jail, which is a way of returning some tax money to your communities.”
“ People say let’s trim the fat, but it’s closer to let’s trim the bone,” he said.
By Amanda Estes
Staff writer
In an ongoing initiative to make county government more transparent to the public, Cumberland County officials invited municipal and state officials to take a tour of the Cumberland County Jail in Portland this week
Jail Administrator Major Francine Breton led the tour along with Sheriff Mark Dion, County Manager Peter Crichton, Commissioner Richard Feeney and Captain Wayne Pike. Municipal officials included Councilor Maxine Beecher and City Manager Ted Jankowski from South Portland and councilors Mary Ann Lynch and David Backer from Cape Elizabeth. Jack Berman, a private citizen from South Portland, was also present.
"County government is the middle layer and most people don't understand much about it," said Commissioner Richard Feeney. “Councilors serve on the county's budget advisory committee and when they first come aboard, some don't even know where the county office is."
The purpose of the tour was to make municipal officials aware of how the jail operates and how it affects the county budget. Breton led the group through the general housing or minimum security area, the maximum security area, the kitchen, the master control or surveillance area and the medical unit.
The focus of the tour was the medical unit and the drastic increase in inmate medical costs that is currently driving the county budget. In 2000, the jail’s medical costs were $750,000 and this year, Dion said the county was scheduled to spend $2.9 million, which will mostly be used to provide inmates with antipsychotic drugs.
“The problem is that people come in on pre-prescribed meds and the jail is obligated to continue those meds,” said Feeney.
“I spend more time functioning as a paradoctor than as a police officer,” Dion said. “Two-thirds of the inmates require antipsychotic drugs and six percent have persistent chronic mental illnesses. At one point in June, 100 percent of the detainees required antipsychotic drugs. “
“We did 710 medical intakes last year and 600 out of those were referrals to the psychiatric department,” said Diane North, the health services administrator at the jail.
The medical unit, which serves more than 500 inmates, has four patient units, one exam room and one dental suite that also serves as a meeting place, office space and storage space.
“We are working in cramped quarters,” said North.
The unit is also equipped with a negative pressure unit, which is used to isolate inmates with contagious illnesses such as tuberculosis. North said that the medical department should have at least two negative pressure units. Medical services also lacks an x-ray machine, which means an inmate must be transported to and from another facility at the county’s expense.
Dion also said that when an inmate requires serious medical attention such as surgery, he requires two deputies “on the person, 24/7.” A low risk inmate requires one deputy.
In the mental health department, there are two full-time mental health clinicians and one full-time substance abuse counselor. Dion said physicians and psychiatrists are available on a limited basis and second to funding for medications, the jail needs more funding for nurses and other medical staff.
Dion said that the “mental health system has been defaulted to the jail” due to several factors including the lack of a public health system to recognize and treat mental illness when an individual first exhibits symptoms. The state has also neglected to recognize inmates as mentally ill, which Dion said prevents the jail from receiving state funds.
In 2000, the Portland Police Department received local grants through the Maine chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) to fund crisis intervention team training (CIT) to help officers identify signs of serious mental illness, which Dion said “ gives the appearance that we’re managing the problem.”
CIT trained officers consult with the placement of inmates, but Dion said the program is “asking the police officers to practice the best medicine they know how.”
“I invited the state in to look at jail files because they said I was a politician, exaggerating, but they left quietly because I wasn’t lying. Cumberland County spends an average of $4,200 per inmate compared to the national average of $1,800 to $2,000 per inmate,” he said.
“The state has left funding where it was in 1999,” said Crichton. “It hasn’t recognized the increase in costs. The revenue we take in hasn’t changed that much, it’s gone from $3 million to $5 million.”
The revenue is generated from leasing beds to other counties as well as the federal government. Dion said the federal government is the jail’s largest customer and U.S. Marshals reserved 25 beds, but at his last check, there were 103 federal inmates in the jail.
Dion also said, “All the work that can be done by prisoners is done by prisoners and I figure that is $400,000 in labor given back to the jail. Prisoners also perform over $1 million of labor outside of the jail, which is a way of returning some tax money to your communities.”
“ People say let’s trim the fat, but it’s closer to let’s trim the bone,” he said.
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