Cumberland County jail visitors report steady census, recommend perimeter cameras and facility upgrades

Colleen Hilton, chair of the Cumberland County Jail Board of Visitors, told county commissioners on June 16 that the jail ‘‘is the largest county jail in Maine’’ and that board inspections found no immediate safety issues but did produce several recommendations for improvements.

The report said the jail is rated to hold 570 inmates, with an average daily census of ‘‘about 386,’’ a figure Hilton attributed in part to staffing levels. She told commissioners the board found the county’s partnership with Armor Health — led locally by Kyle Manahan, and staffed with psychiatric and nursing personnel — important to managing behavioral-health needs inside the facility.

Hilton also reported that federal detainees held under contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement averaged 54 in 2024 and that the jail was ‘‘approximately around a 100’’ federal detainees at the time of the report.

The board described several recurring items of concern and recommendations. Those included adding surveillance around the jail perimeter to address transient activity, upgrading locker-room space for correctional staff to store evolving equipment, continued weekly meetings between security and mental-health staff to manage at-risk detainees, and phased replacement of beds to reduce ligature risks.

‘‘We do need additional surveillance … around the perimeter of the jail,’’ Hilton said, and she praised efforts to diversify and train the corrections workforce. Hilton provided an annual grievance count of roughly ‘‘291 grievances per year’’ and said staffing and recruitment had improved relative to past years.

Hilton noted the scale and cost of proposed bed replacements. She referenced an estimate of ‘‘$150,000 per bed’’ and discussed doing replacements one ‘‘pod’’ at a time; a pod was described as one of three cloverleaf housing units, typically 84 beds (some split into 42/42). The board recommended a phased approach to limit immediate capital impact.

Commissioners asked follow-up questions about workforce morale measurement and multilingual staffing. Hilton said the board and sheriff’s office have emphasized trauma-informed care and cultural-awareness training; she added that a recent cohort of about 10 new correctional officers included many multilingual hires. Sheriff Mark Joyce (identified in the meeting transcript as Sheriff Joyce) discussed operational challenges in communications when staff revert to native languages during stressful incidents and said the office is considering radio-assignment strategies to aid identification and response.

The board reiterated its statutory role in inspecting the jail and forwarding recommendations to the commissioners. Hilton closed by commending corrections staff and offering to take questions or defer to jail leadership for technical detail.

Commissioners then moved to the next agenda items, including a notice of renewal for the county’s SHAPE safety and health award; no formal vote on capital upgrades was recorded at the meeting.

Ending: Commissioners asked the board and sheriff to continue work on staffing, training and equipment plans; Hilton and the board of visitors planned to keep the commissioners apprised of progress and any specific capital requests.