The Tri-County Regional Community Corrections Board held a regular board meeting in the Polk County Justice Center on Monday morning.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
After calling the meeting to order, the board began the meeting with the election of new officers for 2023. The first position the board needed to fill was Chair of the Regional Corrections Center. Polk County Commissioner Warren Strandell was the only one who received a nomination for the position and was elected unanimously. The next position was the Vice Chair of the Regional Corrections Center. Norman County Commissioner Steve Bommersbach was the only one to be nominated which the board approved unanimously. The last position was for the Secretary of the Regional Corrections Center. Ron Weiss was the only one to receive a nomination which the board approved unanimously.
MONTHLY DEPARTMENTS STATISTICAL REPORTS REVIEW
The board then began approving the monthly statistics review and Statistical Reports Review of all departments for the month of December and all of 2022. Executive Director Andrew Larson reported there were 165 inmates currently within the jail, and they had an average of 153 inmates for the year, with a year-to-date population of 137 inmates, which was significantly down from the yearly average, but this may have been the case due to the Juvenile Center being closed. He reported that the most common sentences they held people for were substance abuse, probation violations, assault, and DUIs. He reported they had one in security attention detail. For their Transitional Service, they had three new referrals for a total of 15 throughout the month and an average of just less than ten for the year. The Probation Department had 31 new cases, with nine being for domestic cases. They also closed 67 offender files throughout the month. Their Service Program didn’t have a lot of projects for the month, but they did shovel snow at county buildings and helped paint at the Juvenile Center.
PERSONNEL ISSUES
The board then received an update on Personnel issues from Executive Director Andrew Larson, who reported they had one new appointment with Steven Mitchells, hired as a Corrections Officer that started on Monday. He also reported that several Corrections Officers who had originally transitioned from the Juvenile Center would now return to being Juvenile Custody Officers. These included Full-Time Corrections Officers Donovan Hoffman and Patricia Dillabough, Part-Time Corrections Officers Megan Reister, and Senior Probation Agent Kyle Allen, returning to his position as the RRVJC’s Program Director. Larson also reported that part-time Juvenile Center Officer Jason Schraeder was subject to a recall and was recommissioned on December 19. They had also seen a few terminations, which was Corrections Officer Kayla Kofstad on December 16 and Juvenile Custody Officer Nathan Sloop had his offer withdrawn after not showing up on his first day on December 12. The last change was with Juvenile Custody Officer Ma Fatima Sibulo resigning on December 22. Larson reported that there were still three openings for the Juvenile Center but reported he had a plan on how they would find officers to fill in the positions. The board approved the report unanimously.
RED RIVER VALLEY JUVENILE CENTER UPDATE
The board then heard an update from Larson on the Red River Valley Juvenile Center. Larson reported that the Center was coming along well on the building and had installed the HVAC system, which was now operational. They were now completing the final items and commencing tests on their fire alarms and other systems on Wednesday, January 11, and Thursday, January 12. They were also scheduled for a Department of Corrections (DOC) building inspection on Thursday, and when they would be completed, they would have a Permission to Occupy certificate and any other certificates they needed to open at least one side of the facility. They would also be holding an informal open house for the Center’s reopening on Tuesday, January 10. However, Larson also reported that with the shortages of staff and a report of one of the newer members offering their resignation, which would lead to the Center being unable to open due to a lack of staff. Larson reported they were in the process of backgrounding a set of new applicants, but even if they all passed, they would still be short by about one full-time and one part-time Corrections Officer. So, he created two staffing plans to share with the DOC. “In response to that, I put together a couple of different staffing options for the Department of Corrections to consider, and they have looked at it. They are comfortable with the staffing plans that we have. The first staffing plan option is to open both of our facilities, meaning secure detention and non-secure detention. However, we’re not going to have the staffing levels needed to reach that,” Executive Director Andrew Larson explained. “So, the secondary option is to open one side of our facility and then utilize the program director and one of the caseworkers in order to fill in that secondary person on shift Monday through Friday. That is what we are hoping to implement when we reopen, but due to a potential resignation that we weren’t anticipating, there’s also a possibility that we’re not going to have enough staffing to open even one side of our facility. I’m not ready to fully commit to that yet until I get the chance to look at some other options, so staffing does continue to be a struggle for us.”
PAY EQUITY REPORT
The board then heard from Deputy Director Paul Bissonette on a Pay Equity Report. Bissonette reported it was a report they did every three years, and after they had done a calibration of jobs in the agency in monthly salaries and how long it takes every position to reach their maximum salary. Bissonette reported that each position takes about 11 years to reach its maximum salary, and the compliance report and emotional service test range was at 100% and met every requirement. He reported that once the board approves the report, he could send it to the state office to be officially reviewed for approval. The board approved the report unanimously.
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD RECOMMENDATION
The board then heard from Larson on a recommendation for their Electronic Health Record to be implemented in the jail. He reported that they had seen a variety of options for an official health care record system, such as Altru Health and Polk County Public Health’s service, but found that neither had the equipment nor were suited for the jail. They then saw three other Corrections-based agencies and eventually chose Sapphire Health, as it covered all of the needs of the Center and was easy for the officers to use. “Each of the software programs we looked at met our basic needs, but what we felt set Sapphire apart was we felt it was user-friendly and was something we could pick up and implement relatively quickly. We really liked the medication delivery functionality, which I know is important from a nursing staff perspective. For others we had looked at, we felt the medication delivery piece wasn’t quite as thorough and felt it might create potential for errors. Through that, and that the Department of Corrections is currently utilizing Sapphire Health in all of its prison facilities. That gave us some additional insight into how well that might work for us and allow us to create some greater continuity of care because as you’re then transferring information from one system to another. It should be cleaner to be able to transfer information from one Sapphire Electronic Health record to another Sapphire Electronic Health record when we’re transferring records for inmates going to prison.” Larson explained that the system’s software setup would cost $8,000, with the software licensing and support cost being based on the average daily population of the Center, which was about $660 per month. Software hosting would cost them $90 per month, and they would charge $150 per hour for any customization to the program. It would give them an annual licensing fee of $657 per year for a total of approximately $24,200 for its first year, with $11,000 every year annually. When asked what would happen when an inmate would leave, Larson explained that the information was stored within the system’s cloud until the board felt it wasn’t needed, but also would be saved in the company’s data for inmates for up to six years. The board approved the recommendation unanimously.
CONTRACTS/AGREEMENTS
The board then began discussions for the approval of three contracts. The first was to approve the Polk County Social Services Host County Contract for their Residential Services to make Polk County the host county for the Center’s services at the Red River Valley Juvenile Center, which would charge non-county inmates $275 per day for non-secure detention services and $290 for secure detention services. The board approved the contract unanimously.
Sapphire Electronic Health Records
The board then discussed a contract with Sapphire on their Electronic Health Records. Larson reported that they would receive product updates, disaster recoveries, and an application hosting system for the Center. The contract would last for five years, and they would be billed quarterly. They also had the option to end the contract if they needed to terminate the agreement. The board approved the contract unanimously.
Swank Motion Pictures
Larson reported that due to copyright protection, they needed to have a contract with them to show any movies within the institution for public entertainment. The contract would cost them $840 per year, and they would use the prisoner canteen funds to cover the cost. The contract would begin at the beginning of February. The board approved the contract unanimously.
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
The board then began discussions on a press release with the Reaching Rural Initiative. Larson reported that the US Department of Justice and other institutions had a program to address the issue of substance use in rural communities in different cities around the nation to learn how they worked. He reported that several members of the community, such as himself, County Attorney Greg Widseth, Polk County Commissioner Joan Lee, Polk County Public Health Director Sarah Reese, Polk County Sheriff Jim Tadman, and other volunteers had joined a council that would meet monthly with a team of coaches to help criminal justice inmates that were impacted by substance abuse. “We have been selected to participate in this year-long initiative. The initiative will consist of monthly team meetings with coaches who have been specifically signed to work with us for our team to come up with some options to address the issue of substance use, specifically among the criminal justice-impacted population,” Andrew Larson explained. “There will also be opportunities for us to go to other rural jurisdictions across the country. The first being in Loudoun County, Virginia, at the end of February to meet with all of the agencies participating in this initiative and see how other jurisdictions are handling this issue to see if there are programs, services, and practices in other jurisdictions that might work well for us here.” Larson reported he would provide periodic updates on their meetings in future board meetings.
DECEMBER 2022 INVOICES & YEAR-END INVOICES
The board finished the meeting by approving the invoices and bills for the county for October, which they approved unanimously.
The board will meet again on Monday, February 13, at the Tri-County Corrections Center.
