MCIT Awards 4 Grants for Jail Camera Programs

The MCIT Board of Directors during its August meeting approved four grants totaling greater than $73,400 to members to adopt or expand the use of cameras in their jails.

The grants are to help improve awardees’ ability to benefit operationally from the greater use of camera technology in county jails.

Each member grant recipient currently has in place camera systems in and around their jails. But each has challenges with these existing systems, such as:

• Deficient fixed camera monitoring of common areas and in jail cells, particularly cells for inmates needing medical or mental health monitoring
• Outdated camera systems that have blurry images, limiting the usefulness of footage
• No body-worn cameras available to record incidents in individual cells or during transport

Grant Winners

Crow Wing County received $17,070 to purchase additional fixed cameras to eliminate current blind spots; buy two user licenses to expand staff oversight capabilities; and expand data storage, monitoring enhancements and staff training for proper use and policy compliance.

Murray County will use its $6,800 grant to purchase 12 fixed cameras to cover common areas and jail cells currently unmonitored by cameras.

Otter Tail County has $30,000 in grant funds to update its old fixed camera system for improved video clarity and reliability, and to install additional cameras in individual cells and unmonitored areas.

Tri-county Community Corrections will use $19,550 in grant funds to purchase body-worn cameras for all custody staff within the jail, batteries and charging stations for the cameras, and cloud-based video storage.

Grant Winner’s Obligations

Grant winners will provide brief reports to MCIT at intervals of six months, 12 months, 24 months and 36 months after receiving funds. The reports must include details regarding acquisition, adoption, use of and effectiveness of cameras in achieving stated grant application goals.

This is the second grant program MCIT has offered its members. In 2024, MCIT awarded more than $78,000 in jail camera grants to Stearns, Koochiching, Goodhue and Watonwan counties. These previous awardees were ineligible for the 2025 grants.