Idea of adding juvenile detention center in Brainerd gets mixed reaction (2024)

BRAINERD — Losing a $1 million contract to house Cass County inmates has Crow Wing County looking for ideas and options to make up the shortfall.

Commissioners praised the sheriff’s office for looking at multiple avenues for revenue, but the reaction to one idea — to turn a jail pod into a secure juvenile detention center — was markedly mixed.

The shortfall in jail revenue came after Cass County announced it was ending its long-standing contract to board prisoners in Brainerd. Cass County was looking to cut its $1 million bill down by about $300,000 and moved to board inmates in the new, larger Itasca County Jail.

The Cass County Board announced its plans to end the contract in November of 2023, giving Crow Wing County a six-month notice. The three-year contract between Cass and Itasca counties began June 1.

In May, commissioners listened to a report on jail revenue and potential areas to help bridge the funding gap left by Cass County’s departure.

Stearns County, which began using the Crow Wing County Jail in 2023, brought in revenues of $211,007 between January and May of 2024. Stearns County has an average of 30 inmates at the Crow Wing County Jail in Brainerd and the total estimated revenue for 2024 is $674,279.

Cass County revenue accounted for $331,153 between January and May before the contract ended. Crow Wing County Chief Deputy Andy Bradley said they’ve also approached other counties to bring in extra revenue. Revenue came in from Beltrami County, Koochiching County and the Department of Corrections, although those numbers are not bringing in significant dollars.

The county projected the jail revenue to be $1,959,120 for 2024. From January through May, revenues amounted to $620,843.

A contract with the U.S. Marshals Service could fill 10-20 beds for a short term with a possible revenue of $416,000 but it’s been a massive task putting together the required paperwork so that remains an unknown.

“I believe this could be a significant income stream for revenue for us,” Bradley said. “But the paperwork, the contract stuff, has been quite intense.”

Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch

Where the sheriff’s office saw potential was in developing a juvenile secure detention center, although the revenue, after much discussion, could be minimal depending on expenses. Bradley reported revenue opportunities are there, up to $1,222,750. The sheriff’s office also stated the savings of not sending juveniles to secure detention facilities outside the county could increase the revenue and savings to $1,493,750. Crow Wing County paid $544,176 for juvenile detention costs in 2023. The funds went to secure facilities in Bemidji and Lino Lakes with transportation costs at $30 per hour.

But opening a juvenile detention center comes with costs as well. In the report to the County Board, the sheriff’s office noted four correctional officers would be needed and could be reallocated from current employees at a cost of $397,596. In addition, at least eight new employees would be needed — a doctor, a nurse, a director, four correctional officers and a programmer. There would be additional costs for food, school supplies and one-time costs for jail upgrades.

All those expenses are expected to be $1,262,015. With the expenses against the projected revenue, the sheriff’s office stated the savings could be $231,735.

Bradley said they could offer a 14-bed juvenile center and do it without any interaction with the adult jail population. One concern was a need for juveniles to have outdoor recreation. The county has been able to offer that for adults by utilizing a confined space in the jail pods that allows outdoor air from windows high above at the roof level to serve as outdoor recreation. That doesn’t fit with the experience sought for juveniles, but the sheriff’s office thought they could get a variance to make it work. There would be the potential to have 24 beds for juveniles if the second floor in the pod was added, but that would also require more employees.

“We've determined that trying to replace the $995,000 we made from Cass County in their contract is just not possible,” Bradley said.

He said adult inmates available for boarding are becoming fewer and fewer across the state and the country as judges and jails are releasing people. Before the pandemic, the county averaged about 135 inmates, now that is down to about 70.

“So those numbers are just dropping drastically,” Bradley said. “So trying to find another agency to bring us large numbers, like Stearns County, is what we discovered very difficult, and not possible. …

“So the idea behind a juvenile center is that it would support our local community. It’s not a huge revenue stream. It would support the families that have juveniles in corrections here.”

Families, social workers and juvenile probation officers would be able to spend more time with the juvenile because they would all be local.

As of late December of 2022, 47 youths were placed into secure detention by Crow Wing County, totaling 927 days of placement. In 2022, Commissioner Paul Koering suggested Crow Wing County should consider running its own detention facility if a lack of capacity is such an issue. A juvenile detention facility once operated in Brainerd, but it ran at a deficit for a number of years before it shut down around 2008.

“This isn't just a slam dunk, because I don't think you can sit here and look at me and say it's a guarantee that we're going to have revenue over and above $231,000,” Koering said at the May meeting. Koering noted it would be a financial risk and would also mean hiring more people. Bradley agreed seven new employees would be needed.

Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch

Koering said it would be a leap of faith for the board to spend more money, hire more people with the potential to make $231,000, noting that money is not guaranteed and the county could lose money.

“There is room for us to provide this service in Crow Wing County because of the room in the jail.” Bradley said.

Koering said an alternative could be to mothball things and focus on Crow Wing County instead of looking to bring inmates in from other counties.

Administrator Deborah Erickson said the projected revenue from the juvenile center wasn’t really making a dent in the money lost with the Cass County contract.

“We've discovered through a lot of diligent work with other counties that we are just not going to be able to find a partner to replace what we lost with Cass County,” Bradley said.

Erickson questioned if there were proposals for changes in expenses to help with the gap. She asked Tim Houle, who has worked on the issue as the county’s previous administrator, for his thoughts. Houle said if they add in all the correctional officers’ salaries needed for a juvenile center, there would be no revenue from the facility at all.

The sheriff’s office reported the use of the four current correctional officers in addition to the new hires was included in the cost leaving the $231,000 as revenue.

“If we can't solve it on the revenue side, then you must solve it on the expense side,” Houle said. “I don't think that that should be exclusively from the sheriff's office. When we added that revenue, there were many people who benefited from that revenue.”

Houle noted the money from the jail went into the general fund and wasn’t given to the sheriff’s office to support its operations.

“So I also don't think it is just their responsibility to absorb all of the costs associated with it,” Houle said of losing the Cass County contract. “I think that's unfair, and doesn't take into account the history of what was done with the revenue that we got from their sacrifice, of taking additional work on.”

Commissioner Rosemary Franzen said any revenue listed for the juvenile center assumed a full facility.

“I'm more than leery about this proposal,” Franzen said, adding there will be more costs than the proposal took into consideration.

“We had to close down a juvenile center before because we couldn't keep it filled,” Franzen said. Numbers sought on the previous facility didn’t seem to be available and would have been an important piece to consider, she said.

Bradley pointed to the county’s costs to house juveniles outside of the area for secure detention. And to get something started in 2025, with six months needed for licenses and training, they would need to have the go-ahead from the board in June.

“I think this was an opportunity,” Commissioner Steve Barrows said. “I won't disagree with you on that. And I think you guys have done some good work on this. I think that there is an increased need for a juvenile facility. But I do think that we need to see all the options available. Unfortunately, one of them is to do nothing.”

Bradley anticipated the question and had an additional slide in his presentation on what a jail with zero boarders looked like.

If Crow Wing County’s population was about 70 inmates and three pods were closed, it would mean a reduction of 33 employees and an estimated cost reduction of $1,760,715. With employee turnover, Bradley said they could probably get to a reasonable number for staff without any layoffs.

Bradley said a recent DOC jail inspector visit also brought forward rule changes requiring the county to provide more oversight of inmates with correctional officers than they ever had before.

“I don't know what the exact number is going to be at this point,” Bradley said. “But I know that's going to require us to provide more COs in the jail than we currently have. … We’re still working through the details on that.”

Bradley said the Crow Wing County Jail is the fifth largest in the state.

“So we have a very large jail, but we have the least amount of COs working for us,” he said. “... So we’re running a crew that’s doing a great job with what they have, but DOC sees that and they know that there’s some deficiencies in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. And they finally called us on it.”

The DOC inspections in 2018 and 2022 pointed to the need to increase jail staff in Brainerd.

Koering said when the sheriff’s office does get the DOC inspection, the County Board would like that data.

“The jail worked fine while it worked,” Board Chair Jon Lubke said. “I mean, it was built. It was full. It was making money. It was bringing money into the county. The market has changed, the way it looks … One of the advantages we have here is ours is all paid for.”

Lubke said the county lost revenue and will minimize the expense. In the end, he said, they still have a paid-for facility and can jump on future opportunities when they arise.

“I don't know if I feel really well about throwing a bunch of more money at it in order to hope there's an opportunity there just to break even,” Lubke said. “And that's sort of my opinion on it at this time.”

Bradley said he’s driven to try to make this work for a juvenile corrections facility because it’s an opportunity to provide that service to the county and maximize the jail’s use.

Erickson said it didn’t have to be one or the other. The county could look at opening a juvenile facility and reduce existing costs in the jail and in other areas of the county. With unknown factors still in the mix, and not being able to make up for the loss of Cass County inmates right away, it would likely be a multi-year process, Erickson said.

Koering said he will keep an open mind but if asked for an answer currently, he would say no to a juvenile facility. Barrows said he was the opposite.

“I think that there is the opportunity for us to do this and make it work,” Barrows said.

Sheriff Eric Klang said he didn’t think they should give up on it yet. He pointed to programs at the jail and a national level jail study coming to Minnesota this summer that will provide a regional look.

“We have a great jail facility,” Klang said. “We have great staff. … Obviously, we want to continue that and offer those services that we've been offering and all these new programs that we offer to our inmates here as well. I think that we can do it.”

Commissioner Doug Houge said he wasn’t for or against but would like to see some of the other options before the board decides which direction to go.

Erickson suggested they look at expense reductions in addition to the potential for a juvenile facility as they look at the 2025 budget. She said the $1 million shortfall will have to be spread across other areas beyond the sheriff’s department. The first review of the budget is expected to be discussed at the budget committee meeting.

How it started

Cass County was a partner in the Crow Wing County Jail before it was built in 2007 providing $2.2 million toward construction. With the partnership, Cass County was charged the cost of housing an inmate or $62.05 per day with a minimum of 40 inmates. More recently the rate for inmate housing in the state was $75.

Before the 2007 Crow Wing County Jail was built, inmates were housed in different places — in the lower level jail in the Law Enforcement Center with a small high-walled area for inmates to spend time outside, in the jail annex at the former Brainerd State hospital campus off Highway 18 and boarded in neighboring county jails. All told, Crow Wing County had 124 jail beds then and often paid to house inmates elsewhere. The average jail population in 2009 was 134.

When the new Crow Wing County Jail opened in 2007, it was built to hold 286 inmates — 226 from Crow Wing County and 60 from Cass County.

The Crow Wing County Jail is currently licensed to house up to 276 inmates, but the working number may be less than that depending on restrictions, such as whether an inmate could be safely housed with others. The inmate population was reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the operational capacity was at 90% with a population number identified as 248.40.

The Crow Wing County Jail has five housing units or pods in its 78,000-square-foot facility. One of the pods is closed for maintenance reasons as the DOC required what could be a ligature point for an inmate to harm themselves be removed from each cell.

Fully staffed, the jail has about 36 personnel, down from 59 in 2009.

Jail inspections and reports

The Crow Wing County Jail is inspected every two years and was recently inspected by the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

In 2020, the DOC inspection, according to a facility inspection report filed with the state, found Crow Wing County should review intake post duties and conduct a staffing review to determine the need for additional full-time employees at the jail post. The DOC report noted intake staff book new arrivals and are responsible for indirect supervision of two housing units with 46 beds.

“The intake area has a large volume of inmate traffic. As the number of annual intakes rise, consideration should be given to additional staffing in this area,” the DOC report stated.

In general, the jail staff was praised for a “very well maintained” facility where “Administration and staff take pride in the cleanliness of the facility.” Inmates the inspector spoke to were complimentary of jail staff and the DOC stated the jail continues to operate at the “highest levels of compliance.”

In 2022, a DOC facility inspection report stated the jail was “clean, well maintained, and continues to run at high levels of compliance.”

“Well-being check video review showed staff staggering their well-being checks, and giving themselves enough time to be within the 30 minute timeframe as defined in the rule,” the inspection comments noted. “Staff were also completing the checks at a pace slow enough to determine inmates in distress.”

The inspection report found the jail had a robust inmate program schedule providing inmates with education, substance abuse programming, religious, recreation programs, and various volunteer groups. “The Program staff are very passionate about educating and providing resources to inmates.”

Renee Richardson, managing editor, may be reached at 218-855-5852 or renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter @DispatchBizBuzz.