General Meeting
Tuesday August 22, 2006
9:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Minnesota Department of Corrections—Central Office
Attendance
Lee Buckley (Gov’s Office) Bill Guelker (DOC)
Russ Stricker (Hennepin Co.) Pat Kauth (DHS)
Kelley Heifort (DOC) Tricia Hummel (DPS)
LuAnne Buck (RS Eden) Farris Bell (DOC)
Tim Lanz (DOC) Dan Cain (RS Eden)
Andy Erickson (Ramsey Co.) Gary Johnson (DOC)
Dan Storkamp (DOC) Jeff Peterson (DOC)
Wanda Berg (Olmsted Co.) Lynne Singelmann (DHS)
Cherie Shoquist (MHFA) Lynda Boudreau (Health)
Gary Johnson began the meeting at 9:10 a.m., by welcoming all to the meeting, and introductions were made.
Dan Storkamp thanked everyone for coming and wanted to make sure that everyone fills out his or her specific parts of the MCORP Project Planning charts. Responses are due by 9/15/06. Once they have been submitted to DOC, Dan’s staff will compile results so that it can be discussed at the September meeting. Results will show us what areas counties can work together on with certain projects.
Dan has had one meeting with the Information & Research Committee. There are a number of members who will need to be brought up to speed on corrections practice. Dan will devote the next meeting to doing that. There will also be some literature review on reentry that the committee will begin.
Gary passed out the new Governance Structure chart and went over the new changes that the committee had decided on at the previous Steering Committee meeting, in July. It shows more about how the three pilot counties are connected in that some things overlap that they can work on together but at the same time they are still their own separate entities. Then on the other side it shows how when the DOC and the communities work together in forming transitions.
The Re-entry team will be having a meeting this Thursday August 24, 2006 with Commissioner Fabian to give her an update of the progress of the plan and what their next steps are going to be.
Gary stated he and the Reentry Team had developed three documents with the facilitation of Dan Storkamp. These were passed out one at a time for discussion and edit. The first document was the Steering Committee’s Charge. During discussions an edit was suggested by Dan. The wording of the charge was changed and agreed to by the committee. It will read, “This steering committee is charged with the planning, coordination and implementation of activities associated with successful offender reentry. The committee will meet as needed on the fourth Tuesday of each month to conduct their business.”
Further discussion clarified the activities section of the document: “The Steering Committee’s responsibilities will encompass the following activities:
· Identifying and prioritizing reentry projects.
· Recommending statutory and regulatory changes that will enhance the successful reintegration of Minnesota offenders.
· Coordination and communication with partners and stakeholders.
The committee came to agreement that the MCORP mission listed in on the DOC website for MCORP should be stated at the beginning of this document.
The committee moved on to the Steering Committee Roles & Responsibilities document. While discussing definitions, the committee agreed that there should be a definition of the term, correctional facility. It was expanded to include DOC facilities and local jails. This was because eventually, statewide reentry projects may include some of these facilities that include STO offenders and those facilities the DOC contracts with for bedspace. However, for the purposes of the Pilot Project, the term means only DOC, state run prisons. Additional discussion centered around the use of the LSI-R as the assessment tool to define the target offender population that will be included in the pilot project. Lynda Boudreau brought up the fact that the Steering Committee had already dealt with the issue of the assessment tool, as well as setting down work plans for future implementation. It was agreed that there should be a review of all work previously done by the Committee and a report to the expanded Steering Committee group.
The Subcommittee Structure document was then discussed. The most important changes made to this handout would be that the committee voted that the creation of subcommittees and assignment of subcommittee chairs and subcommittee membership will be determined by authority delegated to the Steering Committee Chair, acting under the oversight of the Commissioner of Corrections. The Steering Committee also agreed to eliminate the section of the document that speaks to subcommittee expectations and governance to resolve subcommittee disagreements. Also the group agreed upon the entire deletion of Focus teams.
Next Steps
· The Reentry team will make the changes to the handouts and distribute them to the committee members when they are finished.
· Everyone needs to fill out their portions of the governance charts and get those changes to Dan Storkamp as soon as possible.
· We need to start looking at past work done by the committee so that we do “reinvent the wheel.”
· Creation of subcommittees for different areas of the project.
· Beginning to organize at the local level in the three pilot counties.
· Start thinking about what resources we will need from the communities.
The next Steering Committee meeting will be September 26, 2006, at 9:00 a.m., at DOC Central Office.