SHAKOPEE, Minn. - The old saying is that fences make good neighbors, but not all the neighbors are happy with the new barrier being built around the Minnesota Correctional Facility for Women in Shakopee.
"Fenced prisons had a worse escape and walk-away record than this one did," said Dennis Hron, a former Scott County Commissioner who has lived in the neighborhood since 1964.
For more than a decade Hron has fought efforts to build a fence at the prison, because he fears it will hurt property values. He belonged to a citizens group that hired attorneys and consulted experts.
"We've had people in real estate, mortgage brokers look at this, and they estimate that the property values will drop between 10 and 13 percent for those who live across the street from the prison," Hron told KARE.
The barrier is going up at a price of $5.4 million, and will be the first perimeter fence in the 30-year history of the women's prison. Until now the prison was surrounded by a hedge, and staff used other security measures to guard against escapes.
The State Reformatory for Women, which operated a women's prison farm on the same site for decades, likewise never had a fence. Hron said that many people passing through the area mistook the prison for a community college.
It's the only prison for women in the state, and the 640 inmates run the gamut from white collar criminals to murderers. It's also housed across the street from an elementary school.
But the risk of escape isn't the only factor the Minnesota Dept. of Corrections considered when deciding to erect a 12-foot-tall security fence.
When Shakopee Warden Tracy Beltz fought for funding at the State Capitol, she said the fence is also designed to protect the inmates from outsiders. Trespassing is a real concern.
"Many of the women here have been in horrible relationships involving domestic violence," Beltz explained. "They've had men in their past threaten to do them harm while they're here."
The warden and other corrections officials say they've tried to be sensitive to concerns that the fence blends into the neighborhood. Some lawmakers asked that the cost be cut in half, but the Dept. of Corrections held out for a more aesthetically pleasing design.
Sen. Eric Pratt, of Prior Lake, lobbied for more than $5 million in state money to cover the cost of the fence. It will be constructed from wrought iron and brick instead of barbed wire and concrete due to the prison's location in the midst of a residential area.
Not all neighbors are bothered by the fence.
"It doesn't bother me. It's a prison. Let it look like a prison," Lindsay Barker, who bought a house across the street from the prison in July, told KARE.
"When people ask where I moved to I say, 'You know where the prison is in Shakopee? I'm Right across the street. It's a prison!'"
Barker said she's not worried about her property values dropping as a result of the prison fence. And she's not that concerned about the idea of a prison break, either way.
"I figured if someone was smart enough to escape from prison they'd hopefully go more than a block away, but the fence will take care of that, so I feel safe."
