Skip to main content Skip to office menu Skip to footer
Capital IconMinnesota Legislature

Where to house short-term offenders

Published (3/18/2011)
By Mike Cook
Share on: 



The short-term offender program that allowed offenders with less than six months remaining on their sentence to serve that time in a local jail was eliminated in 2009.

Rep. Tony Cornish (R-Good Thunder) would like it reinstated.

He sponsors HF1033 that would require offenders with a felony conviction to spend the last 180 days of their sentence at a county jail, workhouse or work farm.

It was held over March 16 by the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee for possible omnibus bill inclusion. There is no Senate companion.

The bill is expected to save the state

$5.7 million in the upcoming biennium and $8.8 million in the 2014-2015 biennium, assuming no reimbursement to counties.

“The short-term offender program is a transfer of state costs and responsibilities onto counties,” said Dakota County Commissioner Nancy Schouweiler. “Based on actual numbers of short-term offenders from the last year of this program, the cost borne by counties of housing these inmates statewide for an entire year will exceed

$7 million.”

Rep. Sheldon Johnson (DFL-St. Paul) said it cost Ramsey County more than $1 million in 2009 to house short-term offenders. “At a time when we’re looking at cutting county program aid, LGA and the like, it just doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

Schouweiler noted there would likely be a corresponding increase in medical and mental health costs placed on local units of government, at a time medication costs continue to increase.

Jim Franklin, executive director of the Minnesota Sheriff’s Association, said the program started in the early-2000s when there was a bed shortage in state prisons. At the time, no data was available on costs, but now data exists to raise concerns.

“The increased discipline issues we deal with, the grievance issues we deal with, the lawsuits that we deal with all come back to the county and cumulatively add more to our dwindling resources,” he said.

Franklin also noted that jails can’t all offer programming that prisons do, including that for mental health issues or substance abuse.

Session Weekly More...


Session Weekly Home



Related Stories


Keeping the courts adequately funded
Public safety finance law doesn’t gut Human Rights Department
(view full story) Published 8/11/2011

Governor vetoes public safety bill
At about $1.8 billion in spending, no cuts to courts were proposed
(view full story) Published 7/15/2011

DNA - It’s all in the family
Familial DNA could help solve criminal cases, but at what cost?
(view full story) Published 4/8/2011

Creating a ‘Safe Harbor’
Wide-ranging support for bill to decriminalize juveniles exploited by prostitution
(view full story) Published 4/1/2011

Two omnibus bills merged into one
DFL legislators oppose cuts to Department of Human Rights, Civil Legal Services
(view full story) Published 4/1/2011

Safety versus savings
Home fire sprinklers would be costly, but can save lives
(view full story) Published 3/4/2011

Minnesota Index: State corrections
Figures and statistics on Minnesota's correctional system
(view full story) Published 2/25/2011

How young is too young?
Committee debates age for youth being charged as an adult in certain cases
(view full story) Published 2/18/2011