Neighbors find prison fence offensive

Bracing for another fight with neighbors, Minnesota's corrections department says the fence it wants to build around the state women's prison in Shakopee would resemble the ones surrounding Harvard University.

The department is bracing for a fight as it tries once again in the upcoming session to get legislators to set money aside for a project that many of those living near the prison oppose.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty, in his $1 billion bonding request presented last week, confirmed what many in Shakopee strongly suspected but officials until then had declined to confirm -- that he will in fact seek about half a million dollars to launch the project.

The fact that anyone would not want to wall in a prison has drawn national mirth in years past -- from the Daily Show and others.

But neighbors and city officials in Shakopee say it's no joke.

"The thing everyone's got to realize is that these residents did not move in here after the reformatory was built," said Mayor John Schmitt. "All of them were there when the reformatory was moved across the street," to its present location. "And with the campus-like feel it now has, I'm guessing 90 percent of the folks who go by it are immune to the fact that it is a secure prison facility.

"If that changes, it will impact their property values. If you put houses next to St. Cloud prison, I'm sure it wouldn't work."

"It will look nothing like St. Cloud," he said, referring to the massive stone fortress with guard towers that looms over many Minnesotans' summer lake cabin trips as they approach St. Cloud on Hwy. 10. Nor will it look like any other Minnesota prison.

"I'd like to liken it to what you see around Harvard. You have a wrought-iron fence in 20- to 40-foot lengths, square brick pillars, probably 4 by 4, and on that very, very old campus you have vines growing on the wrought iron. I'd liken it to something like that."

He conceded, however, that there is no razor wire at Harvard, and there would be at Shakopee -- in between a double row of fence that he expects to be 10 to 12 feet high.

"We're trying to be sensitive to the fact that it's located in the middle of a residential area, across from a grade school. The outside fence is going to be, hopefully, aesthetically pleasing to people who live in that community. The inside fence would be pretty traditional cyclone fencing with a couple of barriers of razor ribbon to provide delay" if anyone were to jump the first one.

Visually, would that erase the Harvard look?

Pawlenty offered something of a breather for the issue in his bonding request when he pledged not to push for construction funds this year, only planning money. The full amount would be sought in the 2010 session, Benson said.

Mayor Schmitt found the whole thing odd.

"I can't believe they're going to spend half a million dollars to design the darned thing," he said.

That, replies Benson, comes from a "formula driven by the Department of Administration. It's not cheap. There are architecture firms involved, security firms involved, electrical engineers -- it's more than just a picture of a fence around an institution. It's a sophisticated addition to that facility, including lighting, cameras, security system, grading, drainage, all kinds of considerations."

Even if legislators agree to spend the money in Shakopee, neighbors have hinted that with their property values at risk, the matter could end up in court. Back in the 1980s, they say, the deal that allowed a new prison in the same basic area as the older one provided for its having a campus-like look.

Benson said he does not accept that any such agreement was made. Moreover, he said, times have changed.

"We had less that 150 females at that time; we're now pushing 600. And the complexion of that population as far as crime categories has changed dramatically in 20 plus years. We have female capital offenders, sex offenders, very serious assaults. We are trying to anticipate what could happen in that community if we don't have a fence, and fix it before that happens."

David Peterson • 952-882-9023