Tom Roy, appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton in January to lead the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC), started his career as a probation and parole officer in Duluth in 1974. Most recently he was executive director for Arrowhead Regional Corrections. He chairs the Minnesota Interstate Compact Advisory Council, which oversees the movement of offenders to and from Minnesota, and serves on the state sentencing guidelines commission.
Roy, 58, was raised in Cloquet, Minn., and is a University of Minnesota graduate. His DOC staff of more than 4,200 employees oversees 9,400 adult inmates and 100 juveniles. He recently sat down with Star Tribune reporter Kevin Giles for a get-acquainted session. Following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Q What growth, if any, do you foresee in our prisons?
A We're fortunate that our demographics, our population growth, is relatively flat. Our juvenile crime around the state is going down significantly. If you use that as a predictor of future adult crime, that's a good sign. We are not in a prison population crisis. County jails around the state are in relatively good shape. There is a lot of capacity in the counties for local offenders. Minnesota was way out in front with sentencing guidelines. Coupling that with the Community Corrections Act, which set the philosophy to put more offenders back in the community under a probation treatment model, those two things really led to a controlled prison growth.
Q Corrections officers rallied last fall at Stillwater prison because, they said, the Pawlenty administration wouldn't hire new officers. Did they have a point?
A Those offender-to-officer ratios are always a challenge. I would suggest that the more staff working with offenders the better. It's a balance between what the budget will support and good correctional practice. [Corrections officers] were sincere in stating that problem. [Staffing needs] will vary from facility to facility, from work station to work station, from unit to unit. Because we have a lot of personnel as a public entity, over 4,000 employees, that workload-to-employee ratio is very important to us.
Q Will the DOC continue its contract for medical treatment of inmates outside prisons?
A We have so many facilities around the state, we are driven to use local [hospitals]. Obviously there are procedures that we can't do, surgeries, cancer care. My health care folks say it's the best bang for the buck. We recognize that it bears additional security while those inmates are receiving procedures. It's a high cost, there's no question about it.
