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District attorney and Maine Pretrial Services outline restorative justice RFP and program outcomes
Summary
District Attorney Jackie Sartoris described plans to issue an RFP to expand restorative justice services (a $150 session fee with a subsidized $30 rate and $40,000/year county spending), while Maine Pretrial Services reported 2024 program results—about 711 people served, roughly 89,000 bed-days avoided, a ~90% success metric and ~99% appearance rate.
The Cumberland County Commission heard two related criminal-justice presentations on Jan. 5 that described how the county is expanding diversion-based options and tracking outcomes for defendants before trial.
District Attorney Jackie Sartoris outlined the countys restorative justice pilot, past procurement decisions and a plan to issue a request for proposals to professionalize the program. Sartoris said the county has spent roughly $40,000 annually on restorative-justice work and is moving toward a mixed funding model in which defendants pay a $150 session fee; defendants deemed indigent and eligible for court-appointed counsel would pay $30. Sartoris said about 80% of defendants have paid the full fee in the pilot, leaving up to 20% potentially subsidized by the county. She said one prior contract was not meeting expectations and that more robust procurement via an RFP will help ensure continuity and scalability, particularly for the most serious cases handled by a long-time out-of-state practitioner.
Maine Pretrial Services gave an overview of its operations and outcomes. Executive Director Elizabeth Simone said the program worked with roughly 711 individuals in 2024; pretrial participants accounted for an estimated 89,000 days in the community that year, which the agency characterized as bed-days saved relative to incarceration. Simone reported a program success metric of about 90% for new criminal conduct and failures-to-appear combined and said appearance rates approach 99%.
Cost comparison and staffing: CFO Catherine Wakefield told commissioners that the countys estimated cost to house an inmate is about $204.76 per day, whereas the programs per-person cost for pretrial supervision was roughly $3.35 per day, numbers she presented as context for budget deliberations. Presenters noted the agencys accreditation, a long-standing half-funded domestic-violence specialist position and a selective electronic-monitoring program for high-risk domestic-violence defendants.
Timing and procurement: Sartoris said the restorative-justice RFP will be open for about four weeks and the county expects to bring contract recommendations to the commission by March. She also said the county will continue a month-to-month contract with the current practitioner for very serious cases while the RFP is issued.
What commissioners asked: Commissioners asked about capacity, whether the program could scale, and reliance on a single outside practitioner for serious cases. Sartoris and Simone said community training efforts have produced a pool of interested volunteer community surrogates and that proposals should include succession and scalability plans.
Next steps: Staff will post the RFP for restorative justice practitioners, accept responses, and return to the commission with contract recommendations. The month-to-month continuing contract for serious cases was included in the consent agenda to maintain coverage until the RFP process is complete.
