Inmate count remains high
Rugby’s Heart of America Correctional and Treatment Center (HACTC) continues to operate in the black, attributed to inmate counts averaging around 120 a day.
That is well over the number necessary to cash flow, according to Elaine Little, administrator.
Over the past few months the HACTC has managed to set aside funds from the additional revenue from boarding inmates.
The center can hold up to 32 in its drug treatment wing and around 90 on the jail side. In April, the daily population was 124 and so far this month its been 120.
HACTC has entered a contract with the Sisseton-Wahpeton-Oyate Sioux tribe and the South Dakota District Court system to house members of that tribe into the drug treatment program, when space allows. The HACTC already contracts treatment beds (25) with the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and U.S. Probations.
Little said work to draft a long-term contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to house inmates from the Ft. Yates (Standing Rock) tribe continues to be move forward. Currently, about 30 inmates from that reservation are being housed in Rugby.
Paving of the south parking lot at the center has been approved by the HACTC board and will be completed soon. It’s one of the final exterior projects remaining on the grounds.
The lot gets in rough shape following rain storms, making it difficult for service trucks to use and for employees to walk across.