Governor Larry Rhoden quickly made good on his promise to create a criminal rehabilitation task force if the Legislature approved his $650-million prison plan. Right after quashing the resistant wingnuts in his own party and winning passage of his prison bill, Governor Rhoden signed Executive Order 2025-07 directing his lieutenant, Tony Venhuizen, to make it so:
Section 1. The name of the advisory council is Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force.
Section 2. The Governor may appoint as many members as the Governor deems necessary to carry out the directives of the Task Force. The membership shall at least include:
- Lieutenant Governor, serving as chairperson,
- Six current House of Representative members,
- Five current Senate members,
- One judge, current or retired,
- Two law enforcement representatives,
- One Indigenous representative,
- One healthcare representative with behavioral or mental health expertise,
- One representative with experience in correctional rehabilitative services, and
- Any other interested representative deemed necessary by the Governor.
All members shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor. In the event of vacancies, appointments shall be made by the Governor. There are no term limits.
Section 3. The Lieutenant Governor shall assemble, administer, and lead the Task Force. The Task Force is attached to the Office of the Governor with expenses paid by the Department of Corrections. The Task Force shall meet at the call of the Lieutenant Governor.
Section 4. The Task Force shall have the following directives and functions:
- Evaluate programming and treatment needs for the inmate population in the new facility, and identify opportunities for expansion;
- Engage in consultation to understand needs of Native American-focused programming;
- Engage in consultation for faith-based programming;
- Study re-entry models and best practices; and
- Make recommendations for legislation to the Governor and the Legislature.
Section 5. Unless sooner terminated by the Governor, the Task Force shall expire on January 1, 2027 [Governor Larry Rhoden, Executive Order 2025-07, 2025.09.23].
With 18 members minimum, the rehab task force is smaller than the prison task force, which had 22 members. While dominated by legislators, like the prison task force, the rehab task force does not include the Attorney General or a state’s attorney. Instead, this committee will include an expert on mental health and, perhaps notably, an Indigenous representative (and Governor Rhoden does capitalize Indigenous). Governor Rhoden’s February 27 order creating the prison task force made no mention of Indigenous concerns. But on rehab, Governor Rhoden is ordering not just Indigenous representation but discussion of Indigenous issues.
Governor Rhoden sets a looser timeframe for the rehab discussion than he did for the prison discussion. He gave the prison task force less than five months to report so he could call a Special Session in the fall and put shovels in the dirt ASAP. Governor Rhoden sets no firm report date for the rehab task force, but the committee terminates by January 1, 2027. The rehab task force will thus likely meet through 2026 and provide recommendations to be taken up by a new Legislature in 2027.