County jail population deals with mental health

Heather Giancola said mental health issues among the inmate population are a big problem at the county jail.

Giancola, a social worker from Carlton County Public Health and Human Services, gave a report about services provided to offenders at the Carlton County Jail to the Carlton County Board of Commissioners at a committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

“Since we started the program four months ago, there have been 344 referrals to community agencies,” she said. “We help people get documents, such as birth certificates or driver’s licenses, or help people with housing issues and other needs.”

Giancola gave statistics or how many days offenders stay in jail and how often they return.

“The largest group of people stay 24 to 47 hours,” she said. “Many of the people return after they are released due to probation violations or missing court appearances. Most of those who miss court appearances don’t have transportation to get there.”

One repeat offender has been in jail 10 times. Mental health issues are a major problem, Giancola said.

“Jails are [becoming like] mental health hospitals,” she said. “That is not where a person needs to be if there is a mental health crisis.”

Jail administrator Paul Coughlin told the board that so far this year, the county has sent 130 people to Prairie St. John’s, a private rehabilitation facility in Fargo, and that they’ve also taken people to a medical center there.

“Many of them are shipped right back to jail within two hours,” Giancola said.

“The system is broken right now,” Coughlin told the board.

Dave Lee, Carlton County Public Health and Human Services director, said that there are no beds for mental health patients in the two massive hospital expansion projects (with an estimated combined price tag of over $1 billion) in Duluth.

“We need more inpatient capacity so we’re not sending our local people to Fargo or the Twin Cities,” Lee told the Pine Knot News. “And we need more integrated behavioral health with all health care services.”

Building progress

In other matters discussed at the board meeting, county coordinator Dennis Genereau reported that plans are moving ahead for remodeling the former Cloquet city hall building that the county now owns. He has asked the staff from the veterans services office to take a look at the building to see if they would be interested in moving into the new space. That office is currently located in the Community Services Building.

County garage

County engineer JinYeene Neumann reported there is a problem with using funds from the local option sales tax for partially funding the expansion of the Barnum county garage, a project scheduled for next year.

“The Minnesota Department of Revenue said that the project is not a road or bridge,” she said. “We are waiting for a final decision from that department.”

Neumann told the board they could wait until December, when they might have to shift sales tax funds and pass a resolution to use funds from the County State Aid Road funds. She said that the plan is to have a bond in place for the project in February or March.

Road construction

Assistant county engineer Milt Hagen gave an update on county road projects. Some have been completed, some are waiting for paving next year, while others are still being stabilized in wetland areas. He said that foam blocks are required for some wetlands instead of rubber tires that the county has used in the past.

“Washington Avenue (in Cloquet) is almost completed,” he said. “We can’t close out the project because of the warranties on portions of the project, like the trees that have been planted.” Hagen said the trail on the south side of the street is being used. “That trail gets people off of the roadways,” he said.

A total of $13.4 million in projects are scheduled for the 2020 construction season. Many of the projects will take care of drainage issues. “They are going to be plenty busy,” Hagen said.

Neumann said County Road 11 east of Barnum is still closed but will be completed soon.