A failed state inspection report for the Piscataquis County Jail revealed several serious health risks, missing records and a lack of routine assessments in the facility.
The Maine Department of Corrections marked a dozen areas where the jail failed to meet its standards, which apply to all Maine county correctional centers. The July report, which was provided to the Press Herald by officials Wednesday, highlighted “systematic gaps” in the jail’s medical unit and 70 instances when the jail could not provide records for the Department of Corrections to review.
The state agency ordered the Piscataquis County Jail on Tuesday to cease taking in new inmates. The jail must also transfer anyone it was holding for other jails back to those facilities.
Jail officials must create a plan to correct the deficiencies by Friday afternoon, according to the Department of Corrections. If they don’t, the agency has threatened to pull the jail’s operating license and transfer all of its inmates, effectively shutting it down.
Sheriff Robert Young said in an emailed statement Wednesday that six people were transported back to Penobscot County and six others to Androscoggin County, per the order. While intake has halted, the jail is still holding 24 people, he said. The facility in Dover-Foxcroft has capacity of 38 and averages 25 people in custody per day, according to the county’s website.
“We are continuing to correct the problem areas, and I am confident we will meet DOC standards in a relatively short time,” Young wrote. “In the interim, our inmates are safe, well provided for, and our corrections officers are faithfully carrying out their daily duties.”
Young said the facility struggled to keep up with state standards while it was working to become compliant with the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
“It’s a bear to tackle, especially for a small jail with employees who wear multiple hats,” he wrote.
‘SERIOUS RISKS’ AND MISSING RECORDS
The Department of Corrections’ report lists several key areas where the jail’s health care services “pose serious risks to inmate health,” including an outbreak of a gastrointestinal illness.
The report noted that jail staff did not initiate a quarantine or respond quickly enough to the outbreak, and that the incident was not reported to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
It’s unclear when the outbreak occurred, and jail officials did not respond to questions about the matter Wednesday afternoon. Piscataquis County Manager Michael Williams said he did not know any details about the outbreak. Officials from Maine Department of Corrections declined to provide further details.
Additionally, jail staff have been inaccurately counting and administering medication, according to the Department of Corrections. The report cited one example where one person’s prescription was given to three inmates.
Young, the sheriff, said in an emailed statement that he and his staff are working on a different process to handle medication.
The jail also improperly logged medical records for people at the facility, including notes about their substance use and behavior, according to the report. State officials recommended the jail adopt a better practice for keeping these notes consistent across all of its record-keeping systems.
Most medical records are stored in each inmate’s folder, Young said, but they need to be duplicated to “compliance folders,” which are provided to the Department of Corrections for its evaluation. He added that many records in the jail are in the process of being digitized, which contributed the jail being unable to produce records for inspectors related to other parts of the inspection.
The report also said the jail was overdue for three regular assessments: a financial audit; a “Life Safety Inspection” from the state fire marshal’s office and local fire department; and an annual report from health care providers.
Jail Administrator Jean Larson told county commissioners during their Tuesday meeting that jail officials were working to update the facility’s annual audit and had already contacted the Office of State Fire Marshal. She said the Department of Corrections gave the jail 60 days to schedule the safety inspection.
Young also said the jail needs to write a policy about medical care for people in custody who are pregnant — another detail that state officials marked as “failed” during their inspection.
Both Williams and Young said some details in the inspection report were a surprise. Williams said he knew there were some areas the facility had to fix to come into compliance, but he didn’t know the gravity of the concerns until he spoke with Department of Corrections Commissioner Randall Liberty on Tuesday.
