LA CROSSE COUNTY BOARD PROCEEDINGS

COUNTY BOARD SPECIAL MEETING

MONDAY, MAY 30, 2007

The La Crosse County Board of Supervisors Special County Board Meeting was held on May 30, 2007 in the Administrative Center, Room B410.  Chair Doyle called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.  The County Clerk, Marion I. Naegle, took attendance.  All supervisors were present except as noted:

County Board Chair Steve Doyle

He called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.

Reminders

1.       Need volunteers to help with the picnic in July.

2.       Need volunteers to serve on the Campus Plan Committee (only have four supervisors) – the Committee will only meet once a month for a period.

Presentation by Mark Carey of the Carey Group, Inc.

Power point -Criminal Justice Planning Project

Final Report

Findings and Recommendations

• Reports summarize progress
  • Phase One Report
  • Phase Two Report
  • Phase Three Report
    • 41 Findings
    • 120 Recommendations
• Key Findings

1.       Most of the jail population is low to low-moderate risk

2.       Almost two thirds of the jail population is ostensible being held as probation hold/revocation cases (136 beds our of 200)

3.       The jail is in immediate need of renovation and staffing

4.       Justice Sanctions is handling almost exclusively low risk offenders and treating most of them the same or similarly

·         Actual JS Practice

·         Key Recommendations

1.       Decide upon your guiding beliefs

·         System wide

·         Modified limited risk control

·         Streamline case management functions

·         Single assessment process

2.       Add the following programs

·         Day Reporting Center – 46 jail beds displaced – Immediately

·         Day Reporting Center – 26 jail beds displaced – Immediately

·         Supervised Work Crew – 6 jail beds displaced – After jail remodeling

·         Add other programs as needed – To be determined

3.       Get a handle on hold/revocation cases

·         Complete case by case manual review

·         Establish a study group with DOC

·         Seek local solutions first

·         Consider statewide solutions with other counties

4.       Enter into a community based contract for residential beds for the women offenders

5.       Redesign and expand Justice Sanctions

·         To handle a higher risk clientele

·         Differentiate supervision

·         Add capacity to handle increased client numbers

6.       Remodel Jail and add programming space

·         Convert to limited direct supervision

·         Add 6 FTE

·         Remodel per 17 recommendations

·         Add programming space

·         Utilize jail program coordinator to go gap analysis and implement programs using volunteers, etc.

7.       Expand jail to 277 beds (needed by 2030)

·         Complete an architectural jail program

·         Complete a master facility plan for possible expansion to maximum of 495 beds by 2030

     Why expand now?

·         Assumption: remodeling and program space is critical immediately

·         Can’t remodel without making expansion economically beneficial

·         Can’t control 78 bed impact

·         Can’t use shell concept economically

8.       Other Recommendations

·         Deal with warrants

·         Reduce drug testing by half

·         Add cognitive behavioral programming

·         Modify operations of CJMC

·         Conduct CBO meetings

·         Financial Impact of Recommendations

·         La Crosse County Deserves an Award

o        Visionary to identify need for study

o        Cooperative in all phases of data gathering

o        Partners in developing recommendations

Discussion and a question/answer session ensued.

County Board Chair Steve Doyle

Meeting dates:

·        Tuesday - June 5 – 8:15 a.m. LEC Addition Committee meeting to decide on a plan or process for the next steps.

·        Wednesday - June 20 - 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. CJMC – all supervisors welcome to attend due to all the future decisions that need to be made.

·        Monday – July 9 – 6:00 p.m. Planning Meeting to hear initial comments from the architects and construction manager as to what the Carey Group Report means from their perspective.  The second topic will be the soft processes like the committees, process, programming options and day reporting.  Doyle may ask the Board to vote on non-binding issues (needing a sense of direction). 

·        There will be no June 11 Planning meeting (due to scheduling issues with the Carey Group, tonight’s meeting is in place of the June 11 Planning meeting.)

Supervisor Freedland announced that on June 1 the Solid Waste Department would be taking and disposing of medications.

ADJOURN:

Motion by Hanson/Gillett to adjourn at 8:15 p.m. passed on a unanimous voice vote with 1 excused – Medinger and 1 absent – Montgomery.

The above minutes may be approved, amended, or corrected at the next Board meeting.

I, Marion I. Naegle, La Crosse County Clerk, in and for the County of La Crosse, Wisconsin, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the Journal of Proceedings of the La Crosse County Board of Supervisors Special County Board Meeting held Monday, May 30, 2007 and that it is the whole thereof IN WITNESS THEREOF,  I HAVE HEREUNTO SET MY HAND AND AFFIXED THE OFFICIAL SEAL THIS 31^st DAY OF MAY 2007.