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Port: Minot city candidate banned from county jail over relationship with inmate.MINOT — Isaiah Keller, a candidate for Minot City Council and head of a recovery nonprofit, has been banned for years from entering the Ward County jail because of what both state and county officials describe as inappropriate communications with female inmates.Keller is the executive director of Seeds of Eden, a company that provides recovery and other support services for people struggling with addiction.ADVERTISEMENT A March 1, 2024, report from the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation indicates Keller had been barred from entering the jail in late 2021 after he asked a female resident to meet him at his apartment following her release.Despite this ban, the report indicates that Keller pursued "an inappropriate and unethical relationship" with another female inmate through text messages sent through a messaging service jail inmates have access to.Click the image above to view the PDF document.The report claims Keller went to great lengths to communicate secretly, frequently changing his phone numbers to evade detection by jail staff.Larry Hubbard with the Ward County Sheriff's Office confirmed the findings of the report."Keller is still considered banned, mostly due to Keller never having requested reconsideration or requesting access for any reason since the time he was notified that he was banned," he told me."I was also able to identify that circumstances as to why Keller was banned, and it was for similar reasons outlined in your attached report," Hubbard continued, referring to the aforementioned DOCR report."Those reasons being contact with female inmates outside of the scope for his reasons for access.This would include calls and text messages from various numbers along with the contact itself, which is not allowed." I reached Keller to ask about the ban."There had become kind of a situation in the jail where some of the inmates — and this can happen sometimes unexpectedly — but basically there was an inmate that had feelings," Keller told me when I spoke with him about the DOCR report."There was some misunderstanding with it.In a sense, the jail said we're just not comfortable with you coming in.I didn't try to push the issue or anything like that." "This individual wasn't a client.It was perceived as if I was playing into it," he added."In some regard, could the conversation have been ended earlier?That's something that probably should have happened.I did my best to be professional about it and bring closure." ADVERTISEMENT But the DOCR report indicates Keller specifically avoided signing the inmate up as a client through the Free Through Recovery program."This entire process was done in secret as Keller was very aware that (the inmate) was on probation but never once suggested to her that she reach out to her probation officer to have an ROI (release of information) signed or to make a FTR (Free Through Recovery) referral, despite having arranged for her to sign several other ROI’s while in custody," the report states.Free Through Recovery is a community-based behavioral health program designed to provide care coordination and peer support to individuals who have chronic behavioral health conditions and are involved with the criminal justice system.Attached to the DOCR report were 178 pages of texts between Keller and this inmate sent between Jan.2, 2024, and Feb.12, 2024.Several times, the inmate specifically asks Keller intimate questions, such as how he feels about her expressions of love or her use of pet names like "babe," and he deflected, often indicating that the two would talk about it when the inmate was released."It got too friendly, but I wasn't egregious or inappropriate at any stretch in my opinion.It was more so from her side.But yeah, it was something looking back at it that I should have been more careful about," Keller told me.Asked why he switched numbers, Keller said it was because he "wanted to continue conversations with this individual, which I didn't feel was out of pocket.Again, for me it was a friendship as well, but they weren't a client." Asked why some of the other female inmates were referring to him as their "husband," Keller said you could "call it a crush or a liking." "One thing I told the jail as well, is I said I can't control their desires or how they perceive me," he continued, "but I don't ever want to put that perception off that I was having a relationship with any of them.That was never my intent at all.I tried to handle it the best I could." ADVERTISEMENT According to documents obtained from the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services, Seeds of Eden was terminated from participating as a provider under the state's Medicaid program on Nov.25, 2024.12, 2024, Seeds of Eden was blocked from the state's Free Through Recovery and Community Connect programs.Community Connect is also a behavioral health program focusing on providing community-based care coordination and support services, but it serves a broader population of individuals who have behavioral health conditions and face significant barriers to housing, employment or overall stability.Click the image above to view the PDF document.When asked why Seeds of Eden was terminated from these programs, Interim Health and Human Services Communications Director Mindy Michaels said that state law prohibited the release of additional details.25, 2024, letter from the DHHS sent to Seeds of Eden states the organization violated "Section 4 of the provider agreement, relating to Labor," which "states that the provider may not solicit or hire for personal purposes any individual receiving services" and "may not solicit or receive volunteer labor or services for personal purposes from an individual receiving services in the program.” Michaels said there was no appeal of the decision from Seeds of Eden.Keller told me the issue was a lawn mowing business that was run by a Seeds of Eden staff member."One of the staff was very much passionate about doing lawn mowing.It was a loose organization with funds we were receiving," he said."We didn't look at it as forced labor or anything like that.If we had known it was in violation with the policy through Free Through Recovery or Community Connect, we wouldn't have done it." "Everyone has a past.I'm in recovery myself," Keller added."People who know me know I have ethics and integrity." ADVERTISEMENT The City Council election will take place on Tuesday, June 9.