The Tri-County Regional Community Corrections Board met at the Polk County Justice Center Monday morning.
The first item on the Agenda for this meeting was the Tri-County Correction Centers Financial Audit Report for 2023. Gordon Dale, CPA, was present to explain, discuss, and answer questions if the board had any.
August 2024 Minutes were approved following Dales’ presentation, and Executive Director Andrew Larson continued with the Monthly Statistical Reports. Larson reported that the daily average of inmates for the month of August was 141, with 120 male and 21 female. The top offenses leading to admittance into the Correction Center for the month of August were DWI, Failure to Appear, Parole/Probation Violation, Controlled Substance, and Assault/Domestic Assault. The top reasons for Holding at the Juvenile Center in August were Runaway, Burglary, and Incorrigible.
Larson touched on the current Personnel Issues. Six new appointments, two full-time Juvenile Custody Officers, one part-time Juvenile Custody Officer, one full-time Hybrid Officer, and two full-time Corrections Officers, were made. Six resignations, one termination, and one transfer were also made. The Board passed all personnel Issues requiring approval.
Next on the Agenda were the Proposed Per Diem Rates for NorthWest Regional Correction Center and Red River Valley Juvenile Center. “I did make a request to the board to authorize an increase in our Per Diems for 2025 and that increase is for both the Juvenile Center as well as the jail,” said Larson. “On the jail side, we are going from right now, for any non-contracted Counties that might house an inmate with us, we charge $55 per day, so we increased that to $75 a day.”
Larson explained that there is a different per diem for any inmate who may have serious medical or behavioral issues, such as needing a cell by themselves. That rate was also $55 and is set to increase to $110. Larson says it has been a long time since any increase was requested and that these increases are long overdue.
The Juvenile Centers Per Diems increased as well. “At the Juvenile Center, we increased our Per Diem rate for non-member Counties from $350 to $380 for both secure and non-secure,” said Larson.
The Board spent a few minutes going over some Insurance Renewal Rates, and then a Policy was brought to the Board for approval. The Direct Client Assistance Policy was approved. “The State of Minnesota has come under some scrutiny, especially the last year or so, regarding the management of grant funding,” said Larson. “We have seen is they are really asking for a lot more documentation, policies regarding the management of funds, so the Direct Client Assistance Policy is a policy to kind of outline what our process is.”
Larson did a 2025 Budget Presentation, which was met with approval. During discussions, he shartedhis concerns for the Juvenile Center even though he remains optimistic. “I talked to the board about the ongoing instability and uncertainty at the Juvenile Center,” said Larson. “Unfortunately, it’s probably well publicized that we have had a really hard time getting the Juvenile Center fully opened to operate the way it operated for 20 years before the water intrusion event two or three years ago.” Larson says in all reality, if in a year from now, we can’t get staffed, we are not stable, and we are still having to run with one side closed, it’s just something they will have to look at and he is not giving up on the Juvenile Center. “We’re not going to look at closing the building, especially after we just got it open,” said Larson. “It’s something we will have to be very mindful of because in the 18 months that we’ve been open, we have both sides of the facility open less than three months and that is 100% do to staffing.”
The board approved an agreement with the Dancing Sky Area Agency on Aging (Chore Services) for 2025. “That is a grant that we have that allows us to provide Chore Services. Chore Services are services to people who are 60 or older, so we have a chore services inmate work crew, and they will go out in the community and do outside Chore Services, primarily things like raking leaves, some gutter clean out, that sort of stuff,” says Larson. The contract was secures $9816.00 to continue these services.
The second contract was to renew with the State of Minnesota for the DWI Court Program. “That particular agreement covers the cost of 1.625 full-time equivalent so it covers some cost of some personnel along with the cell phones the agents carry to maintain contact, “said Larson. The contract was approved and will extend the program for an additional year.
The Board moved on to approve all Invoices for payment. A closed session took place at the end of the board meeting that had to do with strategy for labor negotiations and review of labor negation proposals and the meeting was adjourned when the closed session concluded.
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