Hancock County

The Detention Center

Hancock County Jail

• Operated byHancock County Sheriff's Office
• Who runs itTimothy Richardson — Jail Administrator, Hancock County Jail, appointed by the The elected Sheriff — Maine has no commissioner-appointed jail superintendent
• Jail address50 State Street, Suite 10, Ellsworth, ME 04605; (207) 667-7588 — the jail shares the Hancock County Courthouse address
• Licensed capacityLicensed by the State of Maine to house up to 66 inmates
• Rated capacity at 2018 PREA audit58 beds, with 53 inmates present during the audit — the county's own audit report and its website give different capacity figures
• Corrections staffOne Jail Administrator, one Assistant Jail Administrator, five Sergeants, four Corporals, nine corrections officers and five part-time officers
• PREA audit resultAudited 8-10 October 2018 by Brian D. Bivens; found in compliance with all PREA standards, 4 standards exceeded, 27 met, none deficient, no corrective action required
• Daily populationNot found — no average daily population or current count is published
• Year builtNot found — no construction, opening or renovation date is published; the Sheriff's Office page, the commissioners pages and the county budget page were checked

Source: Hancock County — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-23

• ✓The jail is named
• ✗Who is in custody — not published
• ✗Beds and daily population — not published
• ✓What it costs taxpayers
• ✗Deaths in custody — not published
• ✓PREA audits
• ✗Independent inspection — not published
• ✗Who else it holds, and for how much — not published
• ✗How to post bond — not published
• ✗Phone, video and commissary rates — not published

This rates disclosure, not conduct — what Hancock County publishes about a jail its taxpayers own, checked 2026-08-23. Nothing here says the jail is run well or badly. Every mark moves the moment the county posts the document.

The Building

You paid for it. Here is what the record says it cost.

• Year builtNot found
• Original costNot found
• Paid for byNot found
• BedsLicensed for up to 66 inmates by the State of Maine; the county's own 2018 PREA audit report gives a rated capacity of 58

The Sheriff

Sheriff Scott Kane

• Runs the jailYes — 30-A M.R.S. § 1501 gives the elected sheriff custody and charge of the jail
• TermServing since 2015; current term 1/1/2015-12/31/2026
• ResidenceBrooksville
• Chief DeputyWilliam Birch
• Office50 State Street, Suite 10, Ellsworth, ME 04605

Source: Hancock County — Sheriff's Office · checked 2026-08-23

The Judges

Judges in Maine are state judicial officers, not county officials, and they are appointed, not elected. Superior Court justices and District Court judges are nominated by the Governor, reviewed by the Legislature's Judiciary Committee and confirmed by the Maine Senate, and serve renewable seven-year terms (https://legislature.maine.gov/doc/9335). Maine has a unified state trial court, so no judge who sets bail in Hancock County appears on a county ballot — a real difference from Texas and Oklahoma. In Hancock the courthouse, the Superior Court, the District Court, the Commissioners' office and the county jail all share one building at 50 State Street, Ellsworth, yet the county chooses none of the judges who work in it.

Source: the state judiciary · checked 2026-08-23

The County Commissioners

They pay for the jail. The sheriff runs it.

• What they controlThe detention budget, the building itself, and the agreements that let other agencies rent its beds.
• What they don'tDay-to-day operations. The sheriff is separately elected and answers to voters, not to the board.
• The boardBoard of County Commissioners →
• Where the jail money is decidedAgendas and minutes →