By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

York County Sheriff Maurice Ouellette said it takes about $85 dollars a day to house each inmate at the new York County Jail, and he is seeking to lower that cost by sending inmates into the surrounding communities as part of a Community Works Project. 

 “The budget this year is flat-funded, which means I need to be a little smarter with how I spend my money. There is quite a savings to be had,” he said.

 Finances aren’t the only thing motivating Ouellette in his creation of the project. He said he believes the program, which will be offered only to low risk, minimum security inmates toward the end of their sentence, will play a key role in integrating them back into society.

“These are going to be inmates that at some point in time will be back in the community, like it or not,” he said.

Each inmate who chooses to be part of the program will be screened by a panel and the sheriff before they are sent into the community, at which time they will consider the amount of time left in their sentence as well as the charges against them, Ouellette said.

“If they’re doing work next to a daycare, I’m not going to include a sex offender in the work group,” he said. “I’d be crazy to do that.”

The group – up to a dozen inmates – will be monitored exclusively by Officer Colton Sweeney during their work, and the prisoners will not be required to have restraints due to the type of manual labor they most likely would be required to do, Ouellette said.

“If we were down south we’d talk about chain-gangs,” Ouellette said. “Since we’re in Maine we talk about community corrections. We don’t need people in handcuffs and ankle bracelets because it’s not the type of inmates we’re going to send out there.”

Ouellette said the program has a high incentive for inmates, who will earn two days off their sentence for every day they commit to the program. Should Sweeney have any concerns about actions of a particular inmate, the days are added back onto their sentence and the inmate is terminated from the program immediately, Ouellette said. 

Capitalizing on corrections labor is nothing new for the sheriff or some select “trustee” inmates of the York County Jail; those who are allowed to work inside the jail facility to help accomplish day-to-day operations. The York County Jail “trustees” have been helping set up and break down Biddeford’s annual La Kermesse festival for at least the past 10 years, said Raymond Gagne, vice president of the festival committee.

“Without them we’d have a hard time,” Gagne said. 

Pricille Gagnon, president of the La Kermesse Festival, said they’ve never had any issues with inmates.

“Most of them are pretty strong and they’re able to do some good physical work,” she said. “And the only thing it costs us is we feed them breakfast and lunch.”

Gagnon said one inmate even returned to help the committee after his release.

“That’s the kind of people we’re dealing with from corrections,” she said. “When they’re here they are the politest people I’ve worked with.”

Inmate “trustees” have also helped the Sanford Fire Department by painting several large portions of a renovated training facility for the town. 

“They really did quite a bit of work,” said Sanford Fire Chief Raymond Parent.

Ouellette said the goal of the new Community Work Project is to extend projects to the general population of the jail rather than a few select trustees.

“We want to bring them back to the community to have them give something back,” he said.

So far Ouellette has discussed the program with Hollis, Cornish and Biddeford town officials, but he said the entire county can benefit. In his campaigning for the program, Ouellette has stressed the goal of the program is not to interfere with public works projects.

“We don’t want to get involved with doing other people’s work,” he said. “Projects we would do are those that are not budgeted and towns would like to see done.”

Hollis Selectman Stuart Gannett said he felt the only way to determine the benefits of such a program was to implement it.

“It’s going to take supervision, which is going to cost money,” he said. “But I can see where some things could be accomplished.”

Cornish Selectman Vinal Pendexter said the town had previous experience through a similar program about 10 years ago.

“Inmates painted the entire town hall, and they did a really professional job,” he said.

Pendexter said he would encourage the town to make use of such a program for future projects such as repainting the town hall and providing maintenance on the fairgrounds property in town.

Ouellette said the program would also be made available to certain non-profit groups should municipalities choose not to take advantage of the program. 

“We want to start with the taxpayers before offering [the service] to other people,” he said.

Town officials interested in taking advantage of the Community Works Project may contact the York County Sheriff’s office at 324-1113.