Maine: Maine State Prison

WARREN, Maine — Due in part to legislative pressure, it looks as if Maine’s prison farm will be spared the budget-cutting knife — even though the state originally had called for the Bolduc Correctional Facility to reduce its inmate population by half as a cost-saving measure.

Officials from the Department of Corrections last week presented to the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee alternative ways of saving money, so that housing units at the Bolduc facility and others in Machiasport, Windham and Charleston would not be closed, said Associate Commissioner Denise Lord on Wednesday. Other budget-cutting proposals included sending some prisoners to an out-of-state facility.