By C1 Staff
AUGUSTA — Despite a law passed last year to correct jail crowding and budget shortfalls, county sheriffs and commissioners are likely to ask for more money from the state next January.
Central Maine reports that county officials found that the $12.2 million the state promised them isn’t enough to cover jail operations, let alone the cost of boarding inmates in other counties.
Counties are only allowed to raise a certain amount of money on their own, and then must cover expenses with the state granted funds.
Currently there is no precise figure for the amount the jails might need, but the executive director of the Maine County Commissioners Association said it might be anywhere from $1.5 million to $2.5 million.
Earlier this year, county jails received $2.5 million in emergency funding; in 2014, the system faced a $1.2 million shortfall.