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Dakota County to run Sentence‑to‑Service crews after pandemic staffing disruptions, officials say

5084059 · January 21, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

County staff reported that Dakota County will operate adult Sentence‑to‑Service (STS) crews in‑house after a contracted vendor struggled to staff crews during and after the COVID‑19 pandemic; staff described program benefits, state reimbursement and plans to hire crew leaders.

The Dakota County Board of Commissioners received an update Jan. 21 on the county’s Sentence‑to‑Service program, a restorative justice option that lets some adults complete court‑ordered community service in place of short jail stays.

Sarah Reitz, field services deputy director, told the board Dakota County has offered the program for about 25 years and until last year operated adult STS crews through a single contracted vendor. She said pandemic‑era staffing shortages at that vendor forced the county to move the adult crews to internal management and rebuild the program.

"It's a restorative justice program where…

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