AUGUSTA -- The county jail will make state-mandated safety upgrades in the next month, Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty said.

The changes are part of the Maine Department of Corrections' comprehensive inspection of all county jails, which puts mandatory standards in place to ensure every jail follows fire and safety codes, state jail inspector Ralph Nichols said.

The cost to comply will be $20,000, Liberty said, which will be paid for with existing county funds. The Kennebec County Correctional Facility has a budget of $5.5 million this year to make improvements.

Some of the changes needed at the Kennebec County Correctional Facility include new trash receptacles, new containers to lock up chemicals and new systems to track the jail's tools and cutlery, Liberty said.

The changes must be made by Oct. 1, Liberty said, or a plan outlining how the jail will pay for them must be prepared.

The Department of Corrections has said counties that cannot afford to make their compliance adjustments all at once can develop a plan outlining what needs to be done and how the facility's staff is budgeting for it.

The Board of Corrections -- a new entity established as a result of a state-counties compromise over control of Maine's jails -- is working to establish its own budget and would release funds to counties who need it after July 1, 2009.

Liberty said he was "confident" his jail would not face a deficit budget because of the mandate.

"I am very confident that we will pass, and we will pass on time," Liberty said. "My staff has been working very hard and preparing for this for the last 18 months. We're trying to find those costs in-house, and that means we're going to cut what we can, as close as we can."

Nichols said the state conducts comprehensive inspections of county jails every other year, focusing on mandatory standards in each jail. A "pre-audit" is then conducted, giving jails a specific amount of time, typically 60 days, to make the adjustments mandated by Nichols' team.

County jails also conduct their own inspections annually and report their results to the state.

The mandatory standards, Nichols explained, "are things like safety codes, fire codes."

Nichols said each jail has to update its tool inventory, including all cutlery used in kitchens and any instruments that could be used as a blunt-force weapon.

Liberty said the county jail would use a shadow board -- so named because a painted "shadow" is underneath any tool that hangs on the board -- to upgrade its tracking of cutlery.

The jail currently keeps cutlery in a lock box and tools in a separate room.

"You have to keep track of tools that go into your facility," Nichols said. "So if something is missing or being used, you would be able to tell something is supposed to be there."

Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811 Ext. 431

mmalloy@centralmaine.com