Board approves changes to probation programs

The Carlton County board made moves to end the county's participation in the Sentence to Serve program and hire a probation officer to be responsible for Intensive Pretrial Release at its meeting Monday, where commissioners Gary Peterson and Mark Thell were present with Dick Brenner, Tom Proulx, and chairman Marv Bodie participating virtually.

A probation committee has been working for some months on an overview of the county probation program, as it affects the number of inmates in the Carlton County jail.

County attorney Lauri Ketola shared a letter containing early recommendations with county board members on Nov. 2. She presented the recommendations Monday.

Ketola said there has been considerable time and money spent in an effort to understand and reduce the jail population. One of the efforts to reduce the jail population was to use the pretrial release program. Offenders on probation are closely supervised by designated staff. Staff members handling this work have seen notable success. The committee recommended hiring a probation officer to handle a strong, supervised release program to keep people from returning to jail.

The committee is made up of representatives from the local courts, the jail staff, and the local law enforcement.

The county board moved to hire a probation officer to oversee the pretrial release, with Proulx voting no. The retired probation officer said he had first heard about the proposal at Monday's meeting.

Over the past five years the number of people going through the Carlton County jail system using the STS service has decreased significantly with one supervisor and one worker. New guidelines have male staff unable to supervise female offenders. The high cost of staffing STS far outweighed any benefit, the committee concluded.

Proulx asked why there are so few offenders in the STS program.

"At this time few offenders are referred to the program by the judicial system, and a major problem is that those offenders assigned to the program fail to show up" Ketola said.

A motion by Brenner and supported by Peterson to withdraw from the STS program passed with Proulx voting against it.

The probation committee will continue to meet and present their recommendations in the near future. Changes in Restorative Justice, reduction of probation caseloads and a new program called Dosage Probation will be studied by the group.

In other county business:

• A joint powers agreement between WLSSD and the counties of northeastern Minnesota was approved to hire a consultant to develop a plan for a regional solid waste management plan over a 10-year planning period. As required by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the plan will evaluate the alternatives to landfills and provide an assessment of regional waste disposal alternatives. Carlton County's share is about $20,000.

• Land commissioner Greg Bernu got approval for a timber sale in December. He said the price per cord ranges from $24 to $28 throughout the area and even into Wisconsin, which has seen mill closures.