July 1, the Sherburne County Probation Dept. took over supervision of 864 adult felons that had previously been supervised by the Minnesota Dept. of Corrections (DOC).

 

It was the result of a transition by the department from a County Probation Officer (CPO) system to a Community Corrections Act (CCA) system.

 

Under a  CPO system, the county supervises all juvenile and adult misdemeanor offenders residing in the county. Adult felons are supervised by the DOC.

 

Under a CCA, all juvenile and adult offenders, even felons, are supervised by the county probation department.

 

“I’ve always been a supporter of local control and continuity of services for the whole county,” says Sherburne County Probation Director J Hancuch. “After spending the first 18 years of my career in Anoka County, I have been an advocate of CCA.”

 

Last June at a workshop, Hancuch approached the county board about making the switch. He said when he started with Sherburne County in 2008, the original Bench of Judge Karla Hancock, Judge Thomas Hayes, Judge Mary Yunker and the late Judge Robert Varco were all supportive of CCA and made it one of his annual performance goals to continue to investigate possibility.

 

One of the biggest issues with the switch had been funding. For the previous seven years, the major roadblock was trying to get the state to agree to transfer all the funds used by the DOC to supervise adult felons to the county if the transition was made. Scott County had switched to CCA in 2005 and not all the funds were transferred to them. 

 

“There were constant negotiations,” says Hancuch. “I received acknowledgement from the state that they were in agreement to transfer the funds, but it would take legislative action.”

 

Hancuch began working the potential legislative pieces with Ryan Erdman of the Association of Minnesota Counties. 

 

“If the board approved, we were optimistic the legislature would be supportive since it was not a request for “new” money, but rather a transfer of funds to Sherburne County that were initially designated to Sherburne if we had been CCA at the time,” says Hancuch.

 

Last July, the board passed a resolution of intent to make the switch to a CCA, and the probation department has been busy ever since preparing to take over supervision of the adult felons.

 

Training was one of the biggest issues.

 

“We had to educate staff on sentencing guidelines and dealing with supervised release,” says Probation Supervisor Cory Mabis. “Even before felons are released from jail, the probation department receives   documents about where they would like to live. Our parole officers need to go to that place and investigate and report back to the DOC that we’re either going to accept or deny based on specific reasons.”

 

There is also a different process if an adult felon violates parole. They go to a hearing and release unit where a hearing/release officer determines whether they’ll go back to jail.

 

The probation department is now also supervising adult sex offenders. “We have two probation officers that will strictly deal with sex offenders,  based on geographical area. We had to educate them on dealing with sex offenders,” says Mabis.

 

Supervisor Bobbi Shafer of the Courts Unit says their biggest challenge was sentencing guidelines.

 

“That was the biggest learning curve.  We’re continuing to work through that,” she says. “We brought in a part-time retired temp staff person who had years of experience in Anoka County. He’s been very helpful throughout this transition working individually with staff.”

 

There was also an issue with getting files entered into the county’s system. The DOC stopped making entries on June 24 and the county had to get all the new information into its system before the July 1 deadline. “So the head of DOC Information Technology met Brian Kamman, the head of our IT department in a Home Depot parking lot on a Saturday morning,” says Hancuch. “They exchanged the data and Brian brought it back here. He and his staff worked over the weekend to get it into our system.”

 

Hancuch says he believes the county will be able to provide better supervision and services using the department’s full resources.

 

“Those 864 felons were previously being supervised by four probation officers. Now we’ve got  our whole system. We have an organizational structure, so things get plugged in. It’s expanded and able to do that.”

 

Hancuch says the transition wouldn’t have been possible without the help of a long list of individuals who will be recognized at the Aug. 18 county board meeting.

 

They include: Commissioners  Bruce Anderson, Rachel Leonard, Ewald Petersen, John Riebel and Felix Schmiesing; Sherburne County Judges Sheridan Hawley, Thomas Hayes, Walter Kaminsky, Mary Yunker;  Administrator Steve Taylor; Ryan Erdman, AMC and Keith Carlson, MICA for their assistance in drafting legislative language and working with the legislature; Rep. Nick Zerwas for authoring H.F.535; Sen. John Pederson for authoring S.F 540; Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer for co-authoring S.F. 540 and presenting it in committee; and Sherburne County Community Corrections Advisory Board Members  Kenneth Asangwe, Wendy Brown, DOC District Supervisor Deb Anderson,  Director J. Hancuch; Mark Kolbinger, Becker H.S. Assistant Principal,  Judge Mary Yunker (Chair); Joel Brott, Sheriff, Don Starry, Chief Deputy (alternate) Chief Deputy Prosecutor Sam Wertheimer,  (Vice Chair) Kathleen Heaney, Sherburne County Attorney (alternate); John Klossner, Chief Managing Attorney; Mary Jo Cobb, Director Sherburne County HHS, Amanda Larson, HHS Programmer (alternate); Tom Roy, Commissioner of Corrections and his DOC staff, Ron Solheid, Deb Kerschner, Chris Dodge, Sherry Hill and Deb Anderson; IT Director Brian Kamman and his staff, Ray Christenson, Tony Greseth and Jake Primus; Community Corrections Director, J. Hancuch, Supervisors Bobbie Shafer, Corey Mabis, Jennifer Zuchowski and all the Community Corrections staff.

 

Hancuch says so far, the new system is working as anticipated.

 

“The courts, the county attorney’s office, the public defender’s office and court administration is pleased with the progress we’ve made so far,” he says. “And I think other counties are going to be looking at what Sherburne County did and probably consider going CCA in the future because of the initiatives and movement Sherburne County made in getting this done with the state and legislature.”