Clay County Commission

Dan Haglund

James O’Donnell is running a pretty popular program in Moorhead: the West Central Regional Juvenile Center.
The program superintendent broke down the numbers in his annual report for the Clay County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday in Moorhead.
WCRJC is a geographic hub for all types of youth from all backgrounds, and serves a sizable portion of the Red River Valley.
“It’s a small percentage of our population,” said James O’Donnell, WCRJC superintendent. “They’re all a crossroads in their lives, a very dangerous crossroads sometimes.”
O’Donnell outlined the local program into two categories: A secure and a non-secure program.
The secure program serves youths from surrounding counties, as well as Clay, for criminal detention or court-ordered treatment services. The center bills out-of-county individuals on a per diem basis.
The detention portion of secure program averages about 20 youths, and the service area includes the following counties in a cooperative service agreement through the year 2038: Clay, Becker, Cass (N.D.), Douglas, Grant, Otter Tail, Stevens, Todd, Traverse, Wilkin and Wadena. These individuals have generally been arrested by law enforcement.
The secure residential portion also serves about 20 individuals on average, with court-ordered programming of usually three to six months. And there is a waiting list for this program.
The non-secure portion serves only Clay County. It is designed for numerous individual situations. It can be for youth transitioning out of the secure program and awaiting a new community placement; emergency Social Services holds; emergency law enforcement holds; or evaluations in partnership with Lakeland Mental Health.
It can also serve those with acute needs in stabilization or other situations.
O’Donnell says some of these holds are for minor criminal offenses when parents or guardians are not available right away.
“Currently, the adaptation in our non-secure program … we’ve been having a lot of changes recently and it’s been basically due to a lack of state resources,” O’Donnell said. “There are very few programs in Minnesota. For example, Minnesota ranks 50th out of 50 states for PRTFs (Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities).”
A PRTF is a 24-hour non-hospital facility that provides intensive, inpatient mental health services to children and youth under 21, often through Medicaid, and is a more intensive level of care than other community-based services.
O’Donnell said the WCRJC is licensed for 55 youths, but can physically hold up to 65.
Commissioner Kevin Campbell, Dist. 4, inquired what the maximum number of youths the residential portion can handle, and O’Donnell said 25. The option of sharing services between the secure residential and secure detention allows for this slightly higher number.
O’Donnell listed the center’s partnerships as well. The main one is Moorhead Area Public Schools. The others are Lutheran Social Services (LSS), Lakeland Mental Health, Solutions, Psychlogics, Oasis and significant volunteers from Concordia College and the Red River Youth Commission.
He said LSS provides therapists for the youths and Lakeland does the 30-day evaluations in the non-secure unit.
O’Donnell said staffing turnover has improved, as the number of people changing jobs during the pandemic was high. In 2021, there were 25 full-time staff that left, and just nine did the same last year but two returned.
The member counties listed above account for 45 percent of the secure program residents, while 55 percent come from 42 different outlying counties in both North Dakota and Minnesota.
The types of services available between the secure and non-secure units include: K-12 education (MAPS), Cognitive Behavioral Approach, group and individuals counseling, religious services, chemical dependency, trauma therapy, evaluations, sex offender treatment, medication management, transitional services and mindfulness.
There are 26 full-time and 50 part-time staff at the secure facility, and 15 full-time and 20 part-time staff at the non-secure unit.