Minnesota will close Stillwater prison, state’s second-largest correctional facility

Minnesota will shut down the state’s aging Stillwater prison by mid-2029, a move that will lead to layoffs among 565 staff members and require the state to relocate nearly 1,200 inmates.

The decision, reached as part of a budget agreement struck by Gov. Tim Walz and the Legislature, is meant to save the state $40 million.

Built in 1914, the prison, which is technically located in Bayport, is the state’s second-oldest. Staff and inmates have long complained about the dated infrastructure that makes the building costly to maintain. In 2023, about 100 inmates staged a protest over clean water — some saying they were forced to use socks to strain out the rust — oppressive heat and no air conditioning.

“I think we owe them 2025 conditions,” said state Rep. Paul Novotny, R-Elk River, who co-chairs the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee. “There’s much better ways. I don’t know how to even describe it if you’ve never been there.”

Novotny has called several times on the House floor to close the prison and said it’s a humanitarian issue for both inmates and corrections officers. Sweltering in the summer, the prison also can be deafeningly loud. And it’s falling apart.

“There’s $160 million in outdated maintenance,” Novotny said. “It’s hard to tell from the front, but if you go back to the back ... you can see the grout lines in the bricks and the main footings and you just go, ‘Oh my God. I didn’t know a concrete building could bend like that.’”

Corrections officers and their union representatives plan to hold a news conference Friday to demand a stop to the planned closure, which they called an “unacceptable budget gimmick.”

“The proposed closure of the Stillwater Correctional Facility undoubtedly puts lives on the line, overcrowds other facilities, destabilizes our system, and may unjustly displace hundreds of dedicated workers and their families.”

During a media briefing Thursday, Walz said that beyond the budgetary and infrastructure issues, this was the right political moment to schedule the prison’s closure.

“This was a savings area. …We have the capacity inside the system to house these individuals in the other correctional facilities, Oak Park Heights and others," he said.

“It probably was one of those moments that you needed a budget like this and you needed a split Legislature to have the will to do a big thing like this.”

Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said the moving of inmates would be considered on an individual basis, including bed availability, security and their physical and mental health.

As an example, he pointed out that Lino Lakes is the largest Department of Corrections (DOC) facility for substance abuse and sex offender treatment and those types of programs would be considered for transfers.

“We would really look at what [the inmates] needs are, what their outdates are, all of those things would be factored into this as we make those decisions about placement.”

Schnell said it will take weeks before the first inmate transfer is considered. The budget agreement made clear no one would be released early.

Double-bunking inmates in cells is already being done throughout the Corrections Department system and will be considered in transfers.

Rep. Josiah Hill, DFL-Stillwater, called the prison’s planned closure “a difficult development to process in the final hours of session.”

He added that his focus will now turn to helping with the transition.

Stillwater staff have raised alarms about security vulnerabilities because of the facility’s poor sightlines and reliance on century-old manual locking mechanisms.

In the past four years, the state has spent more than $8 million preserving the prison. Its closure will save a projected $40 million, according to figures from the Corrections Department.

But for now, Stillwater plays a critical function: It’s Minnesota’s largest close-security facility, a step below maximum-security. And with an inmate population of 1,206 and a capacity for 1,600, it’s the state’s second-largest prison.

A recent report from the Minnesota Office of the Ombudsman for Corrections singled out Stillwater as part of a crisis in the state’s “crumbling” prison buildings. The report said the prison “needs such significant updating and investments that closing the facility must be seriously considered.”

The report recommended reducing the prison population through early release, including medical, elder or work release programs, and using workhouses in Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

A 2020 report from the Legislative Auditor found the Stillwater and St. Cloud prisons were so outdated that they pose safety concerns.

“At some point, the state will have to substantially reinvest in these prisons if it is to keep using them,” the report said.

Before a spate of early releases in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota’s prison system faced overcrowding that sometimes led to double-bunking in cells meant for one person, a consequence of decades of increased criminal penalties at the Legislature but little interest in building prisons.

At the same time, lawmakers have voted against bills that would have provided needed repairs and updated infrastructure, leaving Stillwater and other aging prisons to fall into greater disrepair.

Recent studies put the combined cost of bringing the Stillwater and St. Cloud prisons up to modern standards at $2 billion, Schnell said.

He added that states across the country and the federal government are grappling with the future of incarceration as aging prisons crumble. He said the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth will close soon, as well.

Novotny said the Prairie Correctional Facility, a former private prison in Appleton, Minn. that has 1,600 available beds, should be considered for purchase as a “relief valve.” Building a prison in St. Cloud should be considered, as well, he said, but that could take up to seven years.

Novotny said he thought the phased closing of Stillwater is an appropriate first step in addressing Minnesota’s prison conditions.

“Stillwater and St. Cloud were built around the same time in the same model as Alcatraz,” he said. “Alcatraz has been closed for 40 years.”

Some staff will stay on to help maintain the remaining living units, but others will lose their jobs. Prison officials say they plan to work with labor unions “to ensure that the staff impact is as minimal as possible.”

The Corrections Department will commission studies to determine how to fully vacate the prison population and what to do with the site.