Surveying Central Minnesota County Jails

Many see homelessness as a condition, not as a result of some specific event. The Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless would say that homelessness is often the result of a crisis, or a failed transition. One transition that many people in Minnesota are failing is the transition from life in an institution to life as a member of society.

According to the 2003 Wilder Survey of those who had been incarcerated, people leaving county jails made up the largest percentage of recently homeless, rather than those leaving state or federal prisons (72 percent vs. 22 percent). A majority of those who had recently exited county jails or workhouses and who were homeless at the time of the survey did not have a stable place to live upon discharge (66 percent).

In Central Minnesota, the Coalition has been partnering with the Central MN Continuum of Care (CoC) to understand which county jails were contributing to the large percentage of homeless ex-offenders, in order to help us focus our attention.

We put together a survey for Central Minnesota County Jails. We asked jails about the size of their inmate population, the demographics of the population, and their discharge planning practices. The purpose of the survey was to identify important characteristics that would help us learn what’s going on in Central Minnesota in terms of preparing inmates for re-entry.

It was also designed to help local county staff, and service providers begin to build relationships with key jail staff involved in the re-entry process. These relationships will help educate jail staff about how to connect inmates to the appropriate services.

In many ways what we found out was not surprising:

• Jail staff estimated that a large percentage of inmates have a chemical dependency (75 percent) or a mental illness (15 percent).
• Of the 10 jails surveyed, only 1 county jail, Stearns County, currently provides inmates with a re-entry or discharge plan.
• When asked the greatest barriers for people leaving county jails, the most common answers were a lack of goals, repeating old patterns, and the inability of ex-offenders to find and keep jobs.

These are common themes for all prisoners throughout Minnesota leaving county jails and state prisons. The Central CoC Minnesota Ex-offender Housing Subcommittee is meeting with Central Minnesota County Jail staff in July to talk about how we can reduce recidivism through improved discharge planning.

I have heard from many people inside and outside of correctional facilities that jails and prisons are not set up for discharge planning, or for aftercare services, or for helping inmates succeed outside the walls. But many of the staff we met with are catching the vision to end homelessness (and recidivism!) though improved discharge planning.

Through the work of the Central CoC, Central County Jails and the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless we are working on closing one door that has allowed too many to enter into homelessness.