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Commissioners learn about Yellow Line Project

NEW ULM — Brown County commissioners on Tuesday learned about the Yellow Line Project, a new program to divert people with petty crimes brought to the Blue Earth County Jail to mental health resources, when appropriate.

Brown County Human Services Director Tom Henderson said the Minnesota Department of Human Services granted Blue Earth County and other Region 9 counties $300,000 to explore a new program designed to provide an early response to people with acute and chronic mental or chemical health problems who become involved with law enforcement and are not community risks.

“It’s county services, probation and law enforcement working together to find alternatives to incarceration,” Henderson said. “It works well for first-time offenders and reduces the revolving door effect. Insurance may cover follow-up treatment and checkups.”

Commissioners viewed a video on the program that included a number of Blue Earth County department heads.

“People with mental illness need a plan, not a cell,” said one Blue Earth County employee in the video.

Henderson said the program included placing a trained person in the Blue Earth County Jail foyer to interview and assess people for mental health symptoms. The assessor and sheriff’s staff determine if jail is appropriate or people are diverted to other programs instead of going through usual legal processes.

Commissioners voiced interest in bringing the program to Brown County.

“So far, the program has been incredibly successful. Blue Earth County’s grant runs out Dec. 31, but they have the program in their 2018 budget,” Henderson said. “There are federal funds available to do assessments, but they don’t cover all costs.”

Brown County Sheriff Rich Hoffmann said dealing with more mental health issues in jail puts increased demands on his staff. Hoffmann said using the program via interactive TV with Blue Earth County is a possibility.

Commissioner Dave Borchert said the program could bring cost savings and benefits to citizens. “It’s a challenge we need to work on together,” Borchert said.

Henderson said he will ask the Blue Earth County Mental Health Center director to come to a Brown County board meeting.

“We could create a mental health facility to help people get treatment,” Henderson said. “Now, they get back on the street, meet their friends and the whole thing deteriorates rapidly.”

Commissioners approved:

• The Brown County Evaluation Center, Inc. (detox division) contract, with a 2018 daily patient rate of $411 (motion by Borchert, second by Dean Simonsen). The 2017 rate was $375 a day. An $88 per recipient discount daily discount remains the same. Brown County usage is down from 294 days at this time of last year to 251 days as of September 2017.

In a letter to member counties dated Oct. 17, Brown County Evaluation Center, Inc., Executive Director Kris Swenson wrote that two factors led to the 12.6 percent/$36 per day 2018 per diem increase.

“The first factor is, we are unable to bill Blue Plus insurance company since it no longer reimburses detoxification services as it did in the past,” Swenson wrote. “Billing Blue Plus allowed us to bill at an increased rate compared to the county per diem rate which in turn saved member counties money.”

Swenson said the second factor is, days of service are down 300 client days, year to date.

“When preparing the budget, we use the previous year’s census to help us arrive at a realistic number of client days. This factor also led to a revenue decrease.”

• Brown County Sheriff’s Office callback items for the 2018 draft budget (motion by Scott Windschitl, seconded by Tony Berg). By consensus, the county budget callback item for further consideration is replacing two squad (vehicles), instead of three. Reducing replacement of three vehicles to two reduces the budget $37,600, including auxiliary equipment.

A Safe Zone $5,000 2018 budget request for a light pole and camera in the Law Enforcement Center (LEC) parking lot was withdrawn Oct. 18.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.

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