Minnesota's Corrections Commissioner is giving a status update Thursday to the state Senate Judiciary Committee on the steps being taken to close the Stillwater prison.
The prison, originally built in 1914 and the state's largest close-security institution for adult males, slated to shut down by June of 2029. That comes after lawmakers decided that after 111 years, the state of deterioration and cost of deferred maintenance was too much of a drag on the state budget.
Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell says they have already moved more than 700 inmates.
"We do want to acknowledge that DOC facilities are experiencing this increase in population that they haven't seen since prior to the pandemic," says Schnell. "To manage this shift, we are actively looking at ways to expand programming and work assignment opportunities for the population."
Some Republican committee members claim the process by which lawmakers decided to close the prison lacked transparency. They also questioned a plan to temporarily house some inmates in the Washington County jail during the transfer process.
But Schnell says they're committed to continuing to move inmates to other state facilities adding that it's a complicated process.
"Managing these transfers is like working on a sliding puzzle, finding the right spot for each individual across facilities that meets their individualized needs, but also looks at things like incompatibilities and security issues," Schnell explains.
As for prison staff, Schnell says he's confident they'll be able to transfer 95% of employees to other facilities.
Schnell does note that so far, they've had to issue 32 layoff notices, but that number is in flux long term.