WISCASSET

The Lincoln and Sagadahoc Multi-county Jail Authority debated Wednesday whether the jail should continue to use a blood alcohol content threshold as a condition for admitting inmates to Two Bridges Regional Jail.

Jail policy currently lists conditions under which inmates will not be admitted, until written documentation is provided from a physician who examined or treated the inmate.

Other conditions include broken bones, profuse bleeding and self-harm behavior, for example.

The condition discussed by the jail authority Wednesday night is the policy item that prevents inmates with a blood alcohol content of 0.25 or higher from being admitted.

Chief Deputy Brett Strout with the Sagadahoc County Sheriff ’s Office sits on the jail authority and first raised the issue.

“It’s a frustration for the police officers and deputies that bring intoxicated people to the jail only to have to take them to the hospital to get medically cleared before they can bring them back to the jail,” Strout said Wednesday evening.

In most cases that determination can be made by the professionals at the jail, as well as by the police departments and sheriff ’s department, he argued.

“I feel as though we’re paying for a hospital emergency room to do an evaluation on people, unnecessarily,” Strout said.

He said Somerset, Knox and Two Bridges use the 0.25 BAC limitation. Conversely, Aroostook, Waldo, Kennebec and Cumberland County jails base admittance on how the person is behaving at the time of intake.

“We all know that there are individuals who can have a high tolerance to alcohol that could be a .25 or higher, and in some instances not even appear intoxicated,” Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry said.

“To me, the better bright line is, is there actual demonstrated sobriety, whether it’s induced by alcohol or drugs or any combination therein,” Merry said.

Strout noted in the past, the jail’s administrator, Mark Westrum, has preferred instituting the 0.25 BAC condition. Westrum had been on paid administrative leave since October, however, before the jail authority voted Wedneday to place him on a 60-day suspension without pay.

“Whether he is here or not, this needed to be brought up,” Strout said. “I’d like folks to consider there is expense incurred doing this.”

Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett said he can get behind a policy change and explained the blood alcohol content condition was placed in the original policies to protect the jail against liability.

Merry said if the 0.25 BAC condition is removed, Two Bridges is still within state Department of Corrections standards.

Corrections Capt. James Bailey, the acting jail correctional administrator, said since the policy was created, medical hours at the jail have increased.

Following the discussion, Bailey agreed to draft a revised policy striking the 0.25 BAC condition, to take before the Policy Committee.

The jail authority also applaud outgoing member Katharine Martin-Savage, who attended her last jail authority meeting Wednesday. Martin-Savage has served on the authority since 2004 but said she is now running for a seat on the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen.

dmoore@timesrecord.com

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