The Tri-County Community Region Corrections Board met this week and the theme of the day was the continuing high population numbers in the Northwest Regional Corrections Center (NWRCC). In 2018 and even further back over the past several years the NWRCC has averaged a little more than 90 percent occupancy which is a little above where the Department of Corrections would like to see jails operate said Executive Director Andrew Larson. “The Department of Corrections uses the 90 percent mark as a where they’d like to see jails operate,” said Larson. “Much of that figure comes from more the old linear style jails where we’re direct supervision which gives us some more flexibility. There was a lot of foresight put into the development of our building that gives us a lot of flexibility into how we operate different areas of our facility. That has given us the ability to run with higher numbers and still effectively manage the population.”
The numbers have increased even more since the start of 2019 with the year to date capacity sitting at about 98 percent. A significant percentage of the population comes from agencies such as the U.S. Marshall Service, Minnesota Department of Corrections and other similar agencies which sometimes use local jails for stops during transfers or as the residence for inmates doing work release or other programs. As of Tuesday morning, U.S. Marshall inmates made up roughly 10 percent of the current population. “Previous months we were in that low to mid 90 range,” said Larson. “And now for the year 2019 were at an average daily population of 196 which is 98 percent capacity. We’re busting at the seams, but the staff is doing a great job of managing all of the different things that the high workload means with new arrests, work release, STS (Sentence to Serve).”
With the increased population, the jail has been experiencing hirer volumes of bookings, attorney meetings, and ITV needs. The ITV is used for meetings with lawyers, first appearances in courts outside of Polk County, along with several other uses. They also have more need for space for face-to-face meetings between attorney’s and clients so a request to remodel a file storage room into a meeting room with ITV capabilities for around $10,000 was approved by the board. “Going back to the theme of increased activity, the increased population we’re seeing a pretty significant backlog in our intake areas,” said Larson. “That could be attorney’s, ITV usage for mental health or first appearances, meeting space for public defenders we just need more room in that area. Our assistant jail administrator drew up a proposal to remodel a file storage room into an additional meeting space and the board approved to move forward with that.”
Another topic discussed by the board this week was ways to better equip Tri-County Probation officers to issue a duress signal or call for backup when situations arise, including needing to make a violation arrest. Unlike many states, Minnesota Probation Officers aren’t allowed to carry firearms explained Larson. “Minnesota is different than many states,” said Larson. “For example, in North Dakota, Probation Officers are licensed to carry. In Minnesota those officers aren’t armed, they don’t carry. One of the things we’ve discussed is the need to better equip the agents to initiate a duress button if they were to encounter a situation in the field, during a home visit or at a satellite office.”
The board tasked the staff to do some further research into devices or apps that can be used to better equip the officers for their May meeting.
