On Monday, May 12, 2025, the Regional Corrections Board met at 9:00 a.m. at the Polk County Justice Center. After approving the April Meeting Minutes, Tri-County Community Corrections Executive Director Andrew Larson gave his Monthly Statistical Reports Review. “Numbers continue to hold steady, which is good. So, this morning the jail was sitting at 125, of that 125, 47 of those were per diems and 78 were our local counties,” says Larson. “Looking at our monthly stance for April, we had an average daily population of 123.5, of those, 104, give or take, were males, just shy of 20 females. So, year to date our numbers are really pretty consistent on the jail side with 128 average daily population through April, 2025.”
The Juvenile Center has been holding its own and staying busy the past few months. Was that the case for April? “The Juvenile Center seems to also be humming along fairly well, and it’s really been helpful that we’ve kind of stabilized our staffing a little bit,” says Larson. “We did have a turnover, with our caseworker, at the juvenile center, so we are looking to get that filled.” Larson says the need for out-of-home placement has been a high-demand option in the state, and the Northwest Minnesota Juvenile Center has been taking in kids from all over. “We are seeing referrals come to us from all over the state,” says Larson. “In April, we had a placement from Becker County, Blue Earth County, a total of three placements from Marshall County, one from Mower, two from Nobles, four from Ramsey County, and one from Todd County. Again, lots of placements for a wide variety of reasons, especially for referrals of Child in Need of Protective Services (CHIPS).” A CHIPS referral would be for a child who has struggled in another placement or a foster home setting. Larson says it is good to provide that service, and it is also a positive thing for the budget as it brings in revenue.
Currently, there are eight children receiving services out of the Tri-County Community Corrections Transition Program. “Our Transition Program is something that has been in operation as long as I have been with the agency. We will get referrals from social services. It may be that a kid is really struggling in the home, not attending school, or has a high level of truancy,” says Larson. “Our transition workers will start to work with them, work with not only the kid but the family to try to stabilize things and hopefully prevent an out-of-home placement.” Larson says that the Transition Program can also be used on the flip side, when a child goes home after being placed in the juvenile center. “The goal is to prevent that out-of-home placement from occurring, but if it does, then we will work with them to help make the placement more effective.”
Larson explains that things are still holding steady on the personnel side of things. “Overall, things have really, I think, improved. We have stabilized, “says Larson. “Like I said, though, we did have the resignation of our caseworker at the Juvenile Center, so we are in the process of filling that position.” Three employees in April passed their probationary period, which is always good news for Larson. “We had three employees who reached the point where they are eligible to pass their probationary period, so that tells us they have been in that position for a year,” says Larson. “I’ve mentioned to the board many times that the year is really crucial. If we can get people to be in positions for a year, they have much greater staying power. That’s a really positive thing for us.”
Next on the agenda was the approval of the 1st Quarter 2025 Financial Audit. “Nothing remarkable there. I would say, it’s pretty much right where you want it to be,” says Larson. “Our revenues are 25% of what we budgeted, and our expenditures are 25% of what we budgeted, so I think that is about as spot on as you can be for the first quarter.” The board unanimously approved the 1st Quarter Financial Audit.
Larson also provided the board with a 2026 Budget Timeline. This was informational only. The plan is to start the 2026 budget at the end of this month, put together a first draft, and present it to the board at the September meeting.
The last couple of items for the meeting were also informational. The first item concerned the possibility of a grant for jail cameras. “I did brief the board on a grant program for jail cameras that is being offered through Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust, also known as MCIT,” says Larson. “They are our insurance provider. We will look at that as a way to potentially implement body-worn cameras for staff within the jail.” Larson says there is no guarantee that they will get it, but it’s a $30,000 grant award, so they will at least apply for it and see if they would be selected for that.
There was one miscellaneous item before approval of the April invoices. Tri-County Correction received a letter dated April 23, 2025, from the Institute for Intergovernmental Research, informing them of the Termination of the Subaward under the Department of Justice. “We did receive notice of termination of a Subaward. With all of the cuts that are coming, especially on the federal side of things, one of the funding streams that had funded our involvement in the Reaching Rural Initiative, which has been going on for a couple of years, that funding was terminated,” says Larson. “We got notice on April 22 that the funding was terminated, basically, effective immediately. As I indicated to the board, thankfully, we were far enough along in that initiative that we had spent out almost all of the personnel costs that we had.” The grant was a $100,000 grant, and Larson says that his best estimate is that there was just around $7000 that was unspent grant money.
The board unanimously approved the April 2025 invoices, and the meeting was adjourned.
The next Regional Corrections Board Meeting will be on Monday, June 9, at 9:00 a.m.
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