NEW ULM — Brown County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday changing the county’s correctional services delivery from the county probation officer system to the community corrections act (CCA) model.

In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature removed a 30,000 county population requirement to serve as a CCA county.

Minnesota Statute 401 allows for county choice on the delivery system for supervision of individuals on conditional release, probation, and supervised release.

Brown County conducted an analysis of the three probation delivery systems and favored changing to the CCA model.

The resolution directed the Brown County Probation Director Evonn Westcott to begin facilitating transition to the CCA delivery system immediately, with intent to officially provide correctional services under CCA Jan. 23, 2026.

Westcott said a number of Minnesota counties are transitioning from the county probation officer model to the CCA model. She said the change would increase local control.

The county probation office model involves two probation agencies. The county office supervises all juvenile matters and adult misdemeanor/gross misdemeanor clients, while the DOC oversees all adult felony clients.

“We’ve been looking at this for years, but couldn’t do it before (due to the 30,000 minimum county population requirement). This delivery system puts more stress on you, but I think we need to make the change,” said Commissioner Scott Windschitl.

Westcott said the Brown County agents will need additional training for the program shift. They will take full responsibility for all community probation supervision including felony cases, except for Intensive Supervised Release for high-risk individuals that are supervised by the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC).

“We have a good group of agents that can deal with issues as they come up,” she said.

“I feel we’ve done our due diligence. I support the move,” said Commissioner Dave Borchert.

Action came on a motion by Commissioner Dave Borchert, seconded by Jeff Veerkamp.