Minnesota Department of Corrections

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.

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

Command structure

List of ranks within facilities:

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

Licensed by Minnesota Department of Corrections

Juvenile services

The department operates juvenile correctional facilities.

Minnesota Correctional Facility – Red Wing in Red Wing serves delinquent boys. It was built in 1889. Minnesota Correctional Facility – Togo in northern Itasca County no longer serves delinquent boys and girls. 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. Now MCF-TOGO only serves adult males as a CIP program

Programs

MINNCOR

Prison industries in Minnesota date back to the production of twine at Stillwater Prison in the 1870s. MINNCOR was created in 1994 to consolidate work from multiple sites and to centralize management functions. Statutes require MINNCOR to be financially self-sufficient, a status it has maintained since 2003. MINNCOR produces goods in its own facilities for sale to public-sector customers and also contracts to provide labor to private-sector businesses. While remaining part of the Department and subject to its policies, MINNCOR is structured like a private business and headed by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Within MINNCOR, since 2007 the EMPLOY program has supported recruitment of incarcerated individuals into post-release employment.

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. 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.

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. For the first two years of existence, it operated as a residential program for men who had been convicted of property crimes. 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. Program staff and participants also engaged in extensive outreach to community groups, the media, and international symposia to raise awareness about restitution. The program retained its original form for only a couple of years and, by the early 1980s, was transformed into a community service program.

References

References

1. "[http://www.doc.state.mn.us/aboutdoc/contactus.htm Contact Us] {{webarchive. link. (2009-12-08 ." Minnesota Department of Corrections. Retrieved on December 8, 2009.)
2. http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Too_Good_to_be_True.pdf {{Webarchive. link. (2014-03-05 page 5)
3. "CCA Announces Closure of Prairie Correctional Facility". Corrections Corporation of America.
4. "Prairie Correctional Facility". Corrections Corporation of America.
5. Minnesota Historical Society Reference Staff. (December 26, 2025). "LibGuides: State Institutions : Administrative Agencies".
6. "Sec. 241.01 MN Statutes".
7. "Organization / Department of Corrections".
8. "Performance Report 2014". Minnesota Department of Corrections.
9. "Clay County Correctional Facility".
10. "[http://www.corr.state.mn.us/org/communityserv/juvenileserv/default.htm Juvenile Services] {{webarchive. link. (2011-07-26 ." Minnesota Department of Corrections. Retrieved on August 24, 2010.)
11. "[http://www.corr.state.mn.us/facilities/redwing.htm Minnesota Correctional Facility – Red Wing] {{webarchive. link. (2011-10-01 ." Minnesota Department of Corrections. Retrieved on August 24, 2010.)
12. "[http://www.corr.state.mn.us/facilities/togo.htm MCF-Togo] {{webarchive. link. (2011-07-26 ." Minnesota Department of Corrections. Retrieved on August 24, 2010.)
13. "[http://www.thistledewprograms.com/ About Thistledew Programs at MCF-Togo] {{webarchive. link. (2003-08-14 ." Thistledew Programs. Retrieved on August 24, 2010.)
14. Nobles, James. (February 2009). "Evaluation Report: MINNCOR Industries".
15. "Sec. 241.27 MN Statutes".
16. MINNCOR Industries. (2024). "Annual Report FY2024 MINNCOR Industries".
17. Huddleston, Nancy. (March-April 2019). "Workforce Development: Can Nontraditional Opportunities Turn the Tide?". Precision Manufacturing.
18. 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.
19. Hudson, Joe. (September 2012). "Contemporary Origins of Restorative Justice Programming: The Minnesota Restitution Center". Federal Probation.
20. Hudson, Joe. (May 1974). "Undoing the Wrong". Social Work.