Minnesota DOC orders Hennepin County to reduce jail population after finding staff negligence

State officials say Hennepin County has failed to meet minimum staffing requirements and created conditions that pose an “imminent risk of life-threatening harm or serious physical injury” to inmates at its jails.

According to a Minnesota Department of Corrections report, the county’s jails at Minneapolis City Hall and a newer Public Safety Facility in downtown Minneapolis were found to be in violation of rules on routine wellness checks and minimum staffing levels.

Since an inspection two years ago, the corrections department says seven inmates have died at the jails because staff failed to conduct mandatory well-being checks every 30 minutes.

The county’s “continued failure to substantially conform to all applicable minimum standards and lack of satisfactory progress towards substantial conformance, most notably its chronic and repeated failure to meet well-being check and staffing requirements, requires corrective action,” the report said.

The department says Hennepin County jail staff inaccurately logged in checks when they were not completed, conducted checks that did not ensure the health and safety of inmates and failed to do more frequent observation of inmates at risk of suicide, in poor health or suffering from alcohol or drug withdrawal.

A corrections department inspector also reported City Hall jails were understaffed on multiple occasions between August and October. During a review of an Aug. 22 inmate death, the department found between four and six people were staffed on the jail’s fourth floor and between five and seven staff were on the fifth floor.

But based on the population at the time, the inspector calculated the jail should have been staffed with nine people on the fourth floor and eight people on the fifth floor.

The corrections department report also noted staff at the City Hall facility, staffers sometimes used a narrow hallway with plumbing fixtures to conduct wellness checks. But checks that way prevented staffers from seeing inmates unless they were standing in front of the window.

The corrections department has ordered Hennepin County to reduce its jail population by more than 100 inmates with a deadline of later this week.

Sheriff Dawanna Witt has until noon on Thursday to reduce the jail population to 600, per the department’s order. On Nov. 8, Hennepin County jails housed 712 inmates. Another 139 people were being held at other jails.

“We were surprised and disappointed to receive this order,” Witt said in a statement. “Some aspects of this order contradict both Minnesota law and the DOC’s own standards and training materials. We have raised these concerns repeatedly with the DOC and have offered to meet, but they have not responded to these offers.”

Witt says the jail intends to appeal the department’s order. She also says the jail is working to move 180 people to other jails.

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