The Tri-County Corrections board met Monday in the Northwest Regional Correction (NWRCC) Center conference room.
MONTHLY STATISTICS REPORT
The board was first presented the monthly statistics from December by Executive Director Andrew Larson. The jail saw an average daily population of 136 inmates, which included 124 males and 22 females. The most common cases for incarceration had 40 parole/probation violations, 24 failure to appear in court, 23 DUI’s, and 13 domestic assault/assault.
The Juvenile Center saw an average population of five during December. The total monthly revenue collected by NWRCC was $81,436.
JUVENILE CENTER UPDATES
The secure detention portion of the Juvenile Center facility continues to struggle with staffing and ultimately re-opening. Last month, the Juvenile Center did not accept non-county member inmates to allow staff to be trained in the secure detention procedures. “We’ve seen an escalation in behaviors of some of the kids in our non-secure side,” said Larson, “If anyone who has worked in that environment, they will tell you it is tough to manage, and it has compounded more so when they do not have a secure-detention side to move them to if their behavior does not improve potentially.”
Larson explained to the board that having the current staff trained to work with secure detention instances was a priority because the intensity and procedures vary compared to non-secure inmates. “I’m thankful to say that we have the training accomplished; everybody is trained on secure detention,” said Larson, “If we’re in a pinch and need to move one of our kids over, we can do that. I think it will be helpful, and we’re looking to modify other things like our training curriculum and how we deliver training.”
The Juvenile Center currently has four part-time custody officers, two hybrid officers who work with the Jail and the Juvenile Center, and seven full-time custody officers. They are searching for one full-time custody officer, which could be considered fully staffed. Although there isn’t a time frame in which the Juvenile Center is set to re-open, Larson is optimistic about the direction of the facility. “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re trending in the right direction, and I know I say that a lot,” said Larson, “But I do feel good about the things that we’re looking at changing, so hopefully we can keep trending that way.”
CONTRACTS AND AGREEMENTS
The board approved the contract agreement for Public Performance Licensing for correctional institutions with Swank Motion Pictures. This will allow the NWRCC to show inmates movies without the threat of copyright. “Since movies are copyrighted, you can’t show inmates a public performance without having a specific license that allows you to do that,” said Larson, “Even in a jail environment, we maintain this license so that if we choose to utilize movies as an incentive this allows to do so without any copyright violation.”
The final item the board approved was the 2024 board meeting schedule, which entails the Tri-County corrections board meeting on the second Monday of every month. Three meeting dates were changed in the schedule due to board member availability. The July 8 meeting has been changed to July 15, the November 11 board meeting to November 18, and the December 9 meeting to December 16.
