An Act To Modify the Rule-making Process for Establishing County and Municipal Jail Standards
Maine Legislature, Session 130, LD 0521
Committee: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Sponsors: BALDACCI
Amends: 34-A MRSA §1208, 34-A MRSA §1208-B

Legislative Document
No. 521
S.P. 204
In Senate, February 24, 2021
An Act To Modify the Rule-making Process for Establishing County 
and Municipal Jail Standards
Received by the Secretary of the Senate on February 22, 2021.  Referred to the Committee 
on Criminal Justice and Public Safety pursuant to Joint Rule 308.2 and ordered printed.
DAREK M. GRANT
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator BALDACCI of Penobscot.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  34-A MRSA §1208, sub-§1, as enacted by PL 1983, c. 581, §§10 and 59, 
is amended to read:
1.  Establishment.  The commissioner shall establish both mandatory and desirable 
standards for all county and municipal detention facilities, setting forth requirements for 
maintaining safe, healthful and secure facilities.  Standards adopted pursuant to this 
subsection must be evidence-based, minimize the imposition of additional costs and reflect 
best practices for the operation and administration of jails.  Standards adopted under this 
subsection are major substantive rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 2.  34-A MRSA §1208-B, as corrected by RR 2019, c. 2, Pt. A, §32, is amended 
to read:
§1208-B.  Standards, policies and procedures applicable to jails
1.  Establishment.  The commissioner shall establish mandatory standards, policies 
and procedures for jails.  The standards, policies and procedures must be established by 
rule and must be evidence-based, minimize the imposition of additional costs and reflect 
best practices for the administration and operation of jails.  The rules must include policies 
and procedures for assisting jails to achieve compliance and for imposing penalties for 
noncompliance.
A.  The standards, policies and procedures must address record keeping and reporting 
of financial data, capital improvement planning, jail staffing, administration and 
management of prisoners, transfer of inmates, notification to prisoners of prohibition 
on contact with victims and other persons, pretrial assessments and services, evidence-
based programming, literacy programs, mental health and substance use disorder 
programs and correctional officer training.
B.  In administering and distributing funding to the jails pursuant to section 1210‑D, 
subsection 4, the commissioner shall:
(1)  Require reporting of data that indicates average daily population of prisoners, 
that excludes federal prisoners, that indicates sending and receiving jails for 
transferred prisoners and that is useful in calculating the distributions to the 
counties pursuant to section 1210‑D, subsection 4; and
(2)  Consider the performance of each jail in meeting the standards established 
pursuant to this section.  The commissioner shall work with the jails to assist them 
in achieving compliance with the standards.  The commissioner shall enforce the 
standards by imposition of monetary penalties upon a county for noncompliance 
by the county jail or regional jail.  A monetary penalty imposed under this 
subsection may not in any fiscal year exceed the County Jail Operations Fund 
distribution payable to a county for a fiscal year pursuant to section 1210-D, 
subsection 4.
2.  Rulemaking.  Rules adopted pursuant to this section are routine technical rules as 
defined by Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2‑A.  Rules adopted pursuant to this section 
must take effect January 1, 2016, except that beginning November 1, 2021, rules adopted 
pursuant to this section are major substantive rules.
SUMMARY
This bill amends the laws governing the authority of the Commissioner of Corrections 
to establish standards for municipal and county jails and detention facilities.  First, the bill 
requires that such standards be adopted through the major substantive rule-making process 
set forth in the Maine Administrative Procedure Act.  Second, the bill requires that the 
standards for county and municipal jails and detention facilities be evidenced-based, 
minimize the imposition of additional costs and reflect best practices for the operation and 
administration of jails.