The Northwest Regional Corrections Board meeting was held Monday, June 12. The meeting recap is below.
MARIJUANA USAGE
There are new ways that marijuana is going to affect probation as the court is now allowed to prohibit a defendant from using marijuana or any usage of cannabis products. Chief Probation Officer Jessica Hajicek talked about if the defendant undergoes a chemical dependency assessment. “The accessor determines that abstinence is going to be key to their level of care,” said Hajicek. “So that code affects somebody’s probation and them not being able to use the substance if there is an excess behavior associated with their use.”
According to the statute, a court cannot oppose any intermediate sanction to have the effect of prohibiting an individual from participating in the marijuana registry program.
FELON VOTING RIGHTS
On March 3, Governor Tim Walz signed the Restore the Vote Act, which allows individuals who are convicted of felonies serving a supervised release or on probation to have their voting rights restored. “What that essentially means is that anybody on supervision for a felony in the state of Minnesota will be allowed to vote,” said Hajicek. “The only criteria that would disallow someone to vote is if they are currently incarcerated.”
If an individual is currently incarcerated on work release, they are allowed to vote; a felon on furlough status is not allowed to vote.
The Northwest Correctional Facility process and approach to this matter is to inform each inmate accordingly. “What we are required to do as a part of this law is to notify the people who are currently under felony supervision with us (about this new law) and their right to register and vote,” said Hajicek. “We have mailed them all notice letters that provide the statute; it also provides them with the website they can all access to get more information if they have questions.”
CAPACITY ISSUES IN THE FACILITY
Although the total number of inmates, from these recent statistics, comes in under the maximum capacity of the facility, Joey Pederson (Jail administrator) explains the potential issues the facility may have.“When it comes to females, we can house up to 30 of them, given to how we currently manage the space available within the jail,” said Pederson. “So to go above 30, we would have to make some major operational adjustments to accommodate a number greater than 30 for females. With that in the Month of May, we have been forced to house a few females in other jurisdictions.”
MONTHLY STATISTICS REVIEW
For the month of May, the Northwest Regional Correction Center averaged 180 inmates. 151 were male, and 29 were female. The most common reasonings for arrest were Parole/probation violations with 52 cases, failure to appear in court was 28 cases.
