ST PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) has announced plans to close two prisons due to a budget shortfall.
Correctional facilities in Togo and Willow River will shut down under the plan, saving the DOC about $11 million dollars a year.
According to a DOC news release, the department is facing a $14 million budget deficiency for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, after lawmakers adjourned the recent special session without taking action on a supplemental budget request.
Corrections officials said Togo and Willow River are the smallest prisons in the state's system. Both facilities operate the state's Challenge Incarceration Program (CIP), which will continue at other sites.
According to the state's website, CIP is a "minimum security boot camp program mandated by the Legislature in 1992 that allows non-violent offenders who qualify to earn early release." The Willow River facility can house up to 180 male non-violent, drug, or property crime offenders, while Togo's program can house up to 90 men.
The Togo facility has about 48 full-time employees, while Willow River has about 51. DOC officials said most of those jobs will be eliminated with the closures, though a few positions will be retained to support CIP at other sites.
A timeline for the closures is still under discussion.
“We take these steps out of a commitment to deliver critically needed services that offer opportunity for transformation and a safer Minnesota,” DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell said in a statement. “While the actions we announced today are immensely difficult, Minnesotans rightly expect that we be responsible stewards of public resources as we fulfill the agency’s mission.”
In addition to the closures, corrections officials said there will be personnel reductions in the commissioner's office and central administrative services; and the department will work to renegotiate service contracts to balance its budget for fiscal year 2021. However, the DOC's news release notes that the department is also forecasting a $25 million deficit for the next biennium.
