Beltrami County Jail Needs Assessment & Feasibility Study Complete

BELTRAMI COUNTY, MN – The Beltrami County Jail has experienced many challenges over the years and the County has been working with the National Institute of Corrections, the Department of Corrections, and the community to establish a plan moving forward to address them. The challenges faced include severe housing capacity limitations, an inability for the Jail to meet Department of Corrections jail design standards, an increase in needs for mental health and chemical dependency resources, jail staff recruiting and retention impediments due to working conditions, elevated movement and safety liabilities due to current design limitations, and an outdated and aging building infrastructure.

In 2019 Beltrami County entered into an agreement with the Department of Corrections to begin the process of evaluating the County’s options by studying the facility’s limitations and compliance obligations.

The County issued an RFP in December of 2021 for a Jail Needs Assessment & Feasibility Study to conduct a jail facility evaluation, incarceration alternatives evaluation, program analysis, develop a future programming projection model and future infrastructure projection model, and conduct impact and financial analyses. After evaluating proposals, Justice Planners, LLC was hired to conduct the study.

Justice Planners has been collecting data on jail populations, jail bookings, inmate demographics, court proceedings, arrest data, probation data, and mental health data for the past 6 months. The data was provided through the Beltrami County Jail records Management System, MN Department of Corrections, State of MN Court System, and other sources.

On February 22, 2022 Justice Planners staff traveled to Bemidji, MN to gather more information and conduct inspections and interviews. Justice Planners conducted three days of comprehensive in-person interviews with the Jail Project Committees (Steering, Programming, Finance, and Building and Design), Jail Administration, Sheriff Administration, Beltrami County Commissioners, Local County, City, and tribal Law Enforcement agencies, Beltrami County Attorney’s Office, City of Bemidji Attorney’s Office, Beltrami County Health and Human Services, Beltrami County Judges, Beltrami Court Administration, Beltrami County Public Defenders, MN Department of Corrections (Probation & Parole), and Beltrami County MIS. Justice Planners also conducted a tour of the Beltrami County Jail to assess the building (structure/infrastructure), design/layout, and functionality.

The Beltrami County Board of Commissioners is set to receive the Justice Planners Final Report at a Special Work Session on August 24, 2022 at 9:30 a.m. in the County Board Room. The public is welcome to attend though there will be no public comment at the meeting. Following the meeting, the public is invited to comment on the findings through the Beltrami County website at https://www.co.beltrami.mn.us/jailprojectportal.html. Only comments submitted through the County’s website will be officially recognized and presented to the Board for consideration.

A Public Hearing regarding the Beltrami County Jail Needs Assessment & Feasibility Study will be held on September 22, 2022 at 5 p.m. in the County Board Room. All comments submitted to the County’s website between August 25 and September 21 will be documented and a summary will be provided to the County Board at the Hearing. The public is encouraged to attend the hearing and comment in person also.