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TRI-COUNTY COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS BOARD HEAR UPDATE ON POPULATION REDUCTION PLAN IN THE NWRCC

The Tri-County Community Corrections board met in the Polk County Justice Center on Monday morning. The meeting began with the approval of the December 1 special meeting minutes.

The board then heard an update on the monthly jail statistics from Tri-County Community Corrections Executive Director Andrew Larson. The average number of inmates being housed daily for November was 180. This brings the average daily number for 2021 to 175. Larson noted most offenses in November were for probation violations, failure to appear, and DUI’s.

The current number of inmates in the jail as of Monday, December 13, was 111. This is following the jail’s population reduction plan that was put into place at the last meeting. Larson gave an update on the reduction plan. “Last Wednesday, we were able to achieve getting below our threshold of 140 inmates in the jail,” said Larson. “We did it in a variety of ways. Each per diem inmate that we house for the U.S Marshall Service and Mahnomen County was reduced by 15 inmates. We’re also currently housing 15 of our inmates in Pennington County at the moment, and that’s helped us get the number down.”

The reduction plan was implemented due to staffing issues at the jail, and the hope is to have the jail fully operating again in a few months once enough hires can be made.

The next item on the agenda was personnel issues. Larson said resignations continue to be a challenge, but he was happy to report to the board many new interviews and applications that continue to come in. “Resignations continue to be a challenge. We have been expecting some of them, so it does make it easier for us,” said Larson. “We have had some good interviews and large numbers of applications that have started to come in. I’m optimistic that with these interviews and their backgrounds, that we’re able to hang onto them for a longer period moving forward.”

The board approved the personnel issues unanimously.

After reporting the personnel issues, the board discussed ARP funding, that could be used to make up for revenue loss. “There is a pretty straightforward revenue loss calculation, that with the way I understand it, we could use ARP funding for any lost revenue that may have occurred because of Covid,” said Larson. “It is something the board is open to considering, but no official action was taken. We will continue to work on it from our end, with consultation from our financial auditor to make sure the use of the funds is in alignment with what the guidelines are for those ARP funds.”

There were then five contract agreements that the board approved, and Larson discussed each one briefly. “The first one was renewing a contract with the city of Fosston for 2022. We have an office lease agreement with them, and this simply was extending it another year,” said Larson. “The next one was approving a grant fund with Dancing Sky Area Agency which allows Chore Services for 2022. The third one was a Public Performance Licensing Agreement with Swank Motions Pictures, which allows us to play movies in the jail through an incentive program without violating copyright. The next one was also just approving a continuous contact agreement with our Financial Auditor, Gordan Dale, to do our 2021 Financial Audit, and the last one was a contract with Polk County Social Services. It was just a renewal of an already existing contract.”

The board approved all five of the contract agreements.

The meeting ended with a closed session with attorney Joshua Heggem to discuss and update labor negotiations. Larson is optimistic that a contract will be before the board at their next meeting in January. The talks have been held to answer concerns from Tri-County Correction Officers and Youth Workers specifically with their concerns regarding starting pay.

The next board meeting will take place in January after the New Year.

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