Inmate lockout at Stillwater correctional facility resolved, lockdown remains
Like this?
Log in to share your opinion with MPR News and add it to your profile.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Updated: 5:15 p.m.
The Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater remains under lockdown status following what family members say was an inmate protest of poor conditions.
The Department of Corrections said around 100 inmates refused to return to their cells, all part of living unit B East, which has a population of around 230.
Though still under lockdown through Labor Day, the DOC said the situation has been resolved without incident and people have been returned to their cells.
DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell said inmates protested by sitting in a common room and playing cards. By 3 p.m., all but two returned to their cells and there were no violent incidents. The remaining men were transferred to solitary confinement.
Support the News you Need
Gifts from individuals keep MPR News accessible to all - free of paywalls and barriers.
Earlier Sunday, a spokesperson said some inmates were unhappy with limited cell release schedules over the holiday weekend, allotting for less shower, phone and recreation time.
Family said inmates have been held in dangerously hot rooms without air conditioning for two days, according to dozens of phone calls they received Sunday morning from inmates.
“This is a peaceful protest to get their human rights,” Cathy Stroud-Calwell, whose son is incarcerated, said outside the facility Sunday. “They’re very stressed out. They’re overwhelmed. They feel dehydrated. People are passing out in there.”
David Boehnke with Twin Cities Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee said an ongoing staffing crisis is a major cause of the “humanitarian crisis” there.
“[The Department of Corrections] keeps cutting back the basic things that people need to survive. They cut visitation to one day,” he said. “They’re not giving them showers and only letting them out of lockdown and things like that, in last number of months, only to work for slave wages and they locked them right back in.”
So, according to family, inmates began protesting.
“This is a really scary situation,” Boehnke said, adding the DOC cut off phone lines on Sunday. “We’re really worried for our loved ones safety.”
In a recording sent to MPR News, a reported inmate said prisoners’ access to water, ice and showers has been subpar for months.
"We just have to take a stand for our rights and say listen, we ain't taking this no more," the inmate said in the recording, sent from Michelle Gross with Communities United Against Police Brutality and recorded by Marvina Haynes, whose brother is an inmate there.
“They have us locked in cells — no A/C, no water, no ice, no showers, no nothing. We ain’t going for that s---, we ain’t trying to hurt nobody, we ain’t threatening nobody and ain’t nobody gonna get hurt,” the inmate added.
The DOC acknowledged issues with staffing but refuted some of the inmates’ claims.
“We do understand that [staffing] is both an issue in Minnesota and every state,” Schnell said at a press conference Sunday.
“Issues around water — there’s not a factual basis for that. The water has been tested here.”
Schnell also confirmed a lack of air conditioning in most areas of the prison.
“We know it’s exceedingly hot in these facilities. … We know that it’s really challenging,” he said, noting cell room temps are into the 80s. “This is a 120-year-old facility. The windows have many challenges.”
Schnell said he intends to address the issues with state lawmakers during the next legislative session.
The union representing correctional staff at the prison said incidents at state prisons will continue unless staffing issues are addressed.
“Today’s incident at MCF-Stillwater is endemic and highlights the truth behind the operations of the Minnesota Department of Corrections with chronic understaffing leading to upset offenders due to the need to restrict programming and/or recreation time when there are not enough security staff to protect the facility,” said Bart Anderson, interim executive director of Council 5 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in a statement.
The DOC said it is in union negotiations. Schnell said the Stillwater facility is short around 50 officers.
“The more staff we have the more we can open up programming which is exactly what the …inmates concerns are.”