Once reprimanded by the North Dakota Department of Corrections for failing to train its correctional officers, the Ward County Sheriff’s Department is now planning to become a training site for area jails.

The department is opening its in-house training course – developed to get back into compliance with a state mandate – to correctional, parole and probation officers from other organizations.

Sheriff Bob Barnard said the county previously had received outside requests to enroll and had signed up a few of those applicants. The decision to create space on a regular basis for other agencies’ officers came after the Department of Corrections recently announced it no longer is planning to offer the training courses.

Ward County instructors offer a training program that meets Peace Officer Standards and Training Board requirements. To participate in the courses, other organizations will pay $50 per enrollee, which is estimated to be adequate to cover costs of materials and instruction.

Barnard said Ward County has held its courses two to three times a year. The county is in the process of filling its 10th class. About 70 students have completed the courses since first offered in April 2015.

The Department of Corrections had issued a notice of noncompliance to the Ward County Jail in December 2014 after an investigation found various violations related to inmate overcrowding, failure to offer adequate medical services to inmates and failure to train nine correctional officers within their first year of employment. The sheriff’s department cited the difficulty of getting officers to the state trainings held in other cities in creating its own program to restore the jail’s compliance.