Dakota County authorities plan to build a health facility at the Dakota County jail dedicated to improving mental health and treatment of inmates.
Local staff would treat physical and mental health issues, as well as substance abuse disorders. The aim will be to reduce the number of inmates’ hospital visits, provide a community of care and establish a place where everyone who needs help can get treatment.
“These are not just prisoners – we talk to patients, they care for patients,” said Pat Enderlein, chief of the detention unit at the sheriff’s office. “This is definitely needed. We are not giving the amount of work we feel we could be.”
District studies and an external consultant over the past two years have confirmed the need for the unit, Dakota County officials said.
Twenty-five percent of inmates with serious health issues need to be treated at the 23-bed prison in Hastings, according to the district.
The Council approved the use of $ 755 to develop plans for this section and set aside $ 5 million for its construction. The total cost, however, will be $ 12 million to $ 14 million, so County is seeking additional funding, including from the legislature.
If all went as planned, the unit would reopen by the end of 2024.
The prison has seen a dramatic increase in the last few years in the number of mentally ill inmates, Enderlein said.
The prison has a medical component, but mentally ill inmates are usually sent to the dining room, he said, and are placed in a single or multiple cell or enclosed cell. The facility was only used as a “temporary stop” before inmates went to the barracks, Enderlein said.
“That is, in a nutshell, to be used as part of a mental health program, which is not in line with their support … and it is not good for our staff, who are trying to move that which also handles all of the take,” he said.
Inmates with serious problems are sometimes taken to hospitals, but Enderlein said hospitals are often “evacuated” and have no bed available. So, he said, the prisoners were sent back to prison. Sometimes, he said, a prisoner cannot get out of jail because it is a security risk.
“Some people just want to be in prison. I mean, we can’t have someone committing murder or having sex with a criminal or something like that [go to the hospital],” Enderlein said.
In 2021, the Dakota County jail sentenced 275 prisoners to a suicide watch, 503 to a drug evacuation watch, 265 to a medical watch and 739 to a “character church” – meaning “something far away” from a prisoner or caregiver, Enderlein. he said.
The prison makes agreements with Advanced Correctional Healthcare for its healthcare professionals, including nurses on site 24 hours a day. Security and health workers would be hired to work on the new unit.
Jay Biedny, project manager for the city, said the increase is likely to be 13,000 feet and one story. It consists of up to 30 beds – one per cell. Inmates in the unit would also have their own outdoor space.
Prisons often separate inmates who receive health care but keep them in prisons throughout, not in one place, Biedny said.
“What we are trying to do is treat people with needs differently,” he said.
Metro-area prisons differ in their handling of health and psychological needs. For example, the Hennepin County prison – the state capital – has a four-cell medical facility and a special place where mental-health patients are referred, said Maj Dawanna Witt, who oversees the prison and court.
Hennepin County makes agreements with Hennepin Healthcare staff, he said, and employs 33 nurses and at least two full-time or full-time nurses, he said.
Detainees with special needs are referred to Hennepin Healthcare, he said.
At Scott County Prison, which can hold 260 inmates, three paramedics and a medical superintendent work at the medical clinic in the building, said Sheriff Luke Hennen.
Even so, “a lot of emergency room visits happen … which turns out to be a lot of security costs,” he said, adding that a guard escorts each inmate to the hospital.
During office hours, staff from a nearby mental health clinic visits inmates with mental health problems. Hours later, the prison makes a contract with a paramedic to treat prisoners in a restaurant.
