No arresting our way out of this – No or low bail means immediate release for many at Cumberland County Jail

No or low bail means immediate release for many at Cumberland County Jail

By Nancy English

Cumberland County Jail currently has 370 available beds out of a total of 570, according to Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce. “We’re accepting all arrests.”

Just before the Covid pandemic shut the country down in March of 2020, there were 425 beds here. At its lowest number in 2020, only 225 beds were available. That was when, as Portland Police Department Major Jason King recalled, the jail was accepting only people charged with violent felonies.

But, due to staff limitations, the jail still holds 200 beds in shut “pods,” as separate areas are called, or in the pre-release building, where prisoners were able to stay during the last phase of their incarceration, some working at day jobs elsewhere. Joyce has 40 job openings but as of February 12th had received only 15 applications.

Joyce acknowledged arrests for low level crimes like criminal trespass can result in a quick release. “I’ve had people come in fifty times in a year. I’m going to guess the fifty-first time will be the same,” said Joyce.

The bail set by the bail commissioner, like “unsecured bail,” which means a person needs to pay it only when they fail to appear in court for their hearing, likely means a person is immediately released. “Many are released on ‘personal recognizance,’” said Major King. “People get released within an hour, a lot of the time.”

‘We need to do something different…’

According to Cumberland County District Attorney Jacqueline Sartoris, bail is set in a variety of ways. People charged with domestic violence assault cannot be bailed because state statute does not permit it, and serious criminal conduct or repeat offenses may also not be permitted bail. But many repeat offenders are well known to all in this system, from the initial encounter with the police, to the jail, to the bail commissioner to the judge at the court. If they receive an in-custody hearing with a judge for a minor crime, they are likely to be released quickly.

“We’re seeing people with low level crimes being let back out and let back out,” Sartoris said. “We have never done this well. We need to do something different… We’re not doing the work of protecting the public.”

“Our job is to arrest people and bring them to the jail. I think there’s been slow progress. The lines of communication are always open,” Major King said.

Sheriff Joyce would like to reinstate programs offered at the jail before 2020, like a GED program, given more staff and other funding. He said any accomplishment can start to turn around someone held at the jail.

‘I don’t believe it is justice or kind to look the other way.’

It’s one thing to meet people where they are, as many in the social work community advise. “It’s another to leave them there,” Sartoris said. Sartoris wants to see the “mental health docket” put to work both to protect the public and give people suffering illness a chance to put their lives into better order. That starts with a competency evaluation. When a person is considered not competent, they will not go to trial. Instead, the DA asks for a further evaluation to determine if the person is “restorable.”

“It’s a multi-step process where the civil code meets the criminal code,” she said. “I will always ask for this, no matter how low level the crime. The people have an interest in restoring someone.”

“I will never dismiss charges; I make the judge do it. I don’t believe it is justice or kind to look the other way.” But 94 percent of persons with substance abuse disorder will not receive treatment, she added, and many will not cooperate at all. The Maine disability rights community says that people have the right to make their own choices. “But what if they are not competent?” she asked.

‘We have a number of people who need more than we are giving.’

Ultimately this is a government systems problem, Sartoris said. Americans were promised secure community-based facilities for people suffering from mental health illness when insane asylums closed in the 1980s, but none were ever built. Instead, people without resources often live and suffer on the street. Sartoris wants the Maine Legislature to fund programs that monitor and help low-level offenders, including group homes that monitor residents.

MaineCare provides 30 days of substance abuse disorder treatment annually, but that is not enough, Sartoris said. “They need sixty days of treatment.” Instead, costs fall on the public – neighborhoods, local businesses, city services – over and over again. “Businesses are suffering. Neighborhoods feel like things are out of control,” she said.

“On a case-by-case basis, I have gotten greater protection for the public,” she said. She has put “progressive treatment plans” in place. A staff ratio of 2-to-1 was changed to 3-to-1 at certain group homes, for example.

“But we have a number of people who need more than we are giving.”