Minnesota Department of Corrections

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Minnesota Department of Corrections
AbbreviationMNDOC
MottoTransforming Lives For A Safer Minnesota
Agency overview
Formed1853
Employees4,200 (estimate)
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionUnited States
Legal jurisdiction Minnesota
Operational structure
Headquarters St. Paul, Minnesota
Commissioner responsible
Website
https://mn.gov/doc/ (official site)

The Minnesota Department of Corrections is a state law enforcement agency of Minnesota that operates prisons. Its headquarters is in St. Paul. [1]

Contents

As of 2010, the state of Minnesota does not contract with private prisons. [2] The first and only private prison in the state, the Prairie Correctional Facility, was closed by its owner in 2010. [3] [4]

Organization

The Department was established in 1959, combining the Corrections Division of the Department of Public Welfare with the Youth Conservation Commission and the Board of Parole. [5]

The head of the Department is referred to as the Commissioner, a position appointed by the Governor. [6] As of 7 January 2019, the holder of this office is Paul Schnell. [7] The Commissioner may appoint up to two Deputy Commissioners. [6]

Command structure

List of ranks within facilities:

TitleInsignia
Captain
Captain insignia gold.svg
Lieutenant
US-O1 insignia.svg
Sergeant - NON-SWORN POSITION
U.S. police sergeant rank (black and yellow).svg
Corrections Officer 2 - NON-SWORN POSITION
Corrections Officer 1 NON- SWORN POSITION

The Minnesota Department of Corrections does not require its staff to be licensed peace officers and most are not licensed peace officers excluding the Minnesota Department of Corrections' Fugitive Apprehension Unit (FAU) and some investigation positions with the Office of Special Investigation (OSI) and Office of Professional Accountability (OPA).

Adult and juvenile correctional facilities

Minnesota state correctional facilities [8]
FacilityPop. typeSecurity class2024 Population
Faribault Male1-31,958
Lino Lakes Male1-31,019
Moose Lake Male1-31,067
Oak Park Heights Male5305
St. Cloud MaleIntake (1-5)1,028
Stillwater Male1 & 41,232
Red Wing AdultsMale241
Rush City Male4966
Willow River (CIP) Male1109
Shakopee Female1-5565
Togo (CIP)Male176
Red Wing Juvenile male

Licensed by Minnesota Department of Corrections

Clay County Correctional Facility; Moorhead, Minnesota. Clay County Correctional Facility; Moorhead, MN; May 8, 2024.png
Clay County Correctional Facility; Moorhead, Minnesota.
Licensed by Minnesota Department of Corrections
FacilityPop. typeNo. of beds
Clay County Correctional Facility [9] Male and Female220

Juvenile services

The department operates juvenile correctional facilities. [10]

Minnesota Correctional Facility – Red Wing in Red Wing serves delinquent boys. It was built in 1889. [11] Minnesota Correctional Facility – Togo in northern Itasca County no longer serves delinquent boys and girls. [12] The Togo facility opened in 1955 as Youth Conservation Commission (YCC). For years it was known as Thistledew Camp. In 2006 the facility's name changed to MCF-Togo, and the Thistledew designation is used to refer to the juvenile programs. [13] Now MCF-TOGO only serves adult males as a CIP program

Programs

Minnesota Restitution Center

Opened in September, 1972 and championed by Commissioner David Fogel, the Minnesota Restitution Center (MRC) was an initiative that introduced many of the practices now associated with the restorative justice movement. [14] For the first two years of existence, it operated as a residential program for men who had been convicted of property crimes. [15] Program staff facilitated meetings at state prison facilities between victims and offenders, who then paid restitution to the victims after being paroled to the residential facility at the Minneapolis YMCA Central Building. [14] Program staff and participants also engaged in extensive outreach to community groups, the media, and international symposia to raise awareness about restitution. [14] The program retained its original form for only a couple of years and, by the early 1980s, was transformed into a community service program. [14]

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop

Founded in 2011, the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop is the largest literary and arts program housed within in a United States Department of Corrections. [16] The first classes were offered at the Minnesota State Prison at Lino Lakes and by 2020 the Workshop had expanded to include all of Minnesota's adult facilities. [16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Contact Us Archived 2009-12-08 at the Wayback Machine ." Minnesota Department of Corrections. Retrieved on December 8, 2009.
  2. ↑ http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Too_Good_to_be_True.pdf Archived 2014-03-05 at the Wayback Machine page 5
  3. ↑ "CCA Announces Closure of Prairie Correctional Facility". Corrections Corporation of America. Archived from the original on July 13, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Prairie Correctional Facility". Corrections Corporation of America. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  5. ↑ Minnesota Historical Society Reference Staff (December 26, 2025). "LibGuides: State Institutions : Administrative Agencies". libguides.mnhs.org. Retrieved January 23, 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Sec. 241.01 MN Statutes". www.revisor.mn.gov. Retrieved January 23, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Organization / Department of Corrections". mn.gov. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Performance Report 2014" (PDF). Minnesota Department of Corrections. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Clay County Correctional Facility" . Retrieved May 9, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Juvenile Services Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine ." Minnesota Department of Corrections. Retrieved on August 24, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Minnesota Correctional Facility – Red Wing Archived 2011-10-01 at the Wayback Machine ." Minnesota Department of Corrections. Retrieved on August 24, 2010.
  12. ↑ "MCF-Togo Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine ." Minnesota Department of Corrections. Retrieved on August 24, 2010.
  13. ↑ "About Thistledew Programs at MCF-Togo Archived 2003-08-14 at the Wayback Machine ." Thistledew Programs. Retrieved on August 24, 2010.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Hudson, Joe (September 2012). "Contemporary Origins of Restorative Justice Programming: The Minnesota Restitution Center" (PDF). Federal Probation. 76 (2): 49–55 – via Academic Search Complete.
  15. ↑ Hudson, Joe; Galaway, Burt (May 1974). "Undoing the Wrong". Social Work. 19 (3): 313–318. doi:10.1093/sw/19.3.313 – via Education Research Complete.
  16. 1 2 Mitchell, Skylar (March–April 2020). "Writing the Way to Regeneration: How the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) is instilling hope in incarcerated inmates". Corrections Today. 82 (2): 44–47 – via Academic Search Complete.
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