FARMINGTON — The Maine Board of Corrections will hold a public hearing June 12 on a proposal for the Franklin County Detention Center to become a full-service jail. It currently is a 72-hour holding facility.

The hearing will be held at 4 p.m. in the North Dining Hall at the University of Maine at Farmington on South Street.

The purpose of the hearing is to provide stakeholders and members of the public an opportunity to comment on the proposed change, Michael Tausek, executive director of the Board of Correction, said in the hearing notice.

The state is also accepting written comments on the proposal. They can be sent to [email protected] or be mailed to Board of Corrections, House Station No. 111, Augusta, ME 04333-0111. In order for them to be considered part of the record, the comments need to be received within 20 business days of the publication notice. That notice was posted Friday on the Board of Corrections website.

“People will have an opportunity to speak,” at the hearing, Tausek said Tuesday. “They will sign in and have a few minutes depending on the amount of people wanting to talk.”

Franklin County commissioners requested the mission change last year and submitted a budget to the Board of Corrections in January. The facility had operated as a full-service jail for decades prior to the state taking over the county jail system on July 1, 2009.

Currently, inmates are allowed to be kept no more than 72 hours and have to be transported around the state to jails with open beds. Previously, Somerset County Jail in Madison had housed Franklin County inmates up until March 26 when it no longer accepted new inmates from counties. Inmates who were housed there prior to that date have been allowed to stay.

A state Corrections Working Group voted in April to recommend that the Franklin County jail become a full-service operation as of July 1. The recommendation also gives the county the money that had gone to other jails to house Franklin County inmates.

“Franklin County claims that the proposed change in use will save money and enable the Franklin County Detention Center to provide more effective correctional services to detainees from Franklin County who after 72 hours must now be detained in facilities outside Franklin County,” Tausek wrote in the notice. “On the other hand, there exists the possibility that the proposed change may not achieve efficiencies due to the amount of bed space already existing within the coordinated correctional system.”

Currently county taxpayers raise $1.6 million for the jail. Of that amount the county sends about $630,000 to the Board of Corrections to go into the consolidated jail system.

Jail officials say the county can operate the jail in 2013-14 for $1.58 million, slightly less than the $1.6 million cap set by the state in 2008.

If there were some minor modifications at the jail, it could hold as many as 44 inmates. Otherwise the maximum inmate population is 31.

The Board of Corrections will look at a variety of items before making its decision,  including hearing from county residents, family members of inmates, defense attorneys and others who are affected.

County transport officers have to transport those inmates back to Farmington for court appearances, medical and other appointments. In April, transportation costs were nearly $125,000, Nichols previously said.

Nichols told county commissioners on Tuesday he is hoping to pack the place with people who are affected by the current status of the jail, including town officials and defense attorneys. If people cannot make the hearing, they can submit written comments, he said. If they cannot mail them, then they can drop them off at the Sheriff’s Department on County Way or at the county courthouse on Main Street, both in Farmington.

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