Maine Jail to Stop Taking Inmates After Failing Routine Health Inspection

The Piscataquis County Jail has been ordered to stop accepting new inmates immediately after a state inspection uncovered serious health and safety violations.

According to the Maine Department of Corrections, the jail failed a mandatory inspection conducted on July 21 and 22, triggering a restriction on its operations. The inspection revealed several concerning issues, including mishandling of medications, discrepancies in medical records, and failure to follow infectious disease protocols.

WGME is reporting that in total, the facility failed 11 mandatory standards and couldn’t even be assessed on nine others due to missing documentation. Inspectors also flagged one essential standard as failed, with 61 additional standards going unreviewed, again, due to a lack of records.

State law requires that jails meet all mandatory standards and at least 90% of essential ones, WGME reported. Because of these failures, the jail must stop all new intakes and send any inmates it’s currently boarding back to their original facilities.

The county now has until Friday to submit a corrective action plan that either addresses these issues immediately or outlines a plan to transfer inmates elsewhere while fixes are made. If no plan is submitted, per the news station, the jail risks losing its license altogether.

At last count, the facility housed 37 inmates. The sudden shutdown raises real concerns about where new arrestees will be held and whether other jails in Maine have the capacity to take on additional inmates.