MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

Minnesota bill proposes solitary confinement ban, new reforms to negate distortion

Jack O'Connor — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 19:36:24 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — Prison reformers want Minnesota to end its use of solitary confinement and improve conditions for inmates separated from the rest of the prison population. The commissioner overseeing the state’s prisons and jails said the issue is more complicated.

A Senate bill, SF207, and its House counterpart, HF1628, would ban solitary confinement and mandate better conditions for those in segregated housing. Segregated housing is used to isolate a prisoner from the general population in response to misbehavior or safety concerns or while an investigation is being conducted.

Solitary confinement in Minnesota

Between July 2022 and June 2023, Minnesota’s prisoners were placed in solitary confinement over 10,000 times, according to the 2023 DOC restrictive housing report.

In 2016, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) reduced the maximum length of time a prisoner could be in solitary confinement from two years to 90 days. The DOC reversed course in 2019 and increased the maximum allowable stay in solitary confinement from 90 to 360 days.

The change came a few weeks after the Minnesota Legislature passed a law governing some parts of solitary confinement — including the implementation of mental health screenings, living conditions with decreased lighting during evening hours and mandatory reporting of any inmate segregated for more than 30 days.

DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell said some prisoners are in solitary confinement — referred to as restricted housing in Minnesota — longer than 360 days if the prisoner reoffends, has fear of returning to integrated housing or has issues reintegrating with the general prison population. Schnell said Derek Chauvin, convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020, was placed in segregated housing to protect him from any prison violence, he added.

While the maximum number of days a prisoner could be in solitary has gone up and down, the lowest figure of 90 days falls short of the 15-day maximum outlined by the United Nations official standards for prisoners, commonly known as the “Nelson Mandela Rules.”

'Starting with a ban'

Chief author of SF207 Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul, said the DOC needs to reevaluate its use of solitary confinement.

“I think the discretion that they still have to use (solitary confinement) is a little too wide,” Oumou Verbeten said. “The risks and again the impact to individuals who experience this is just so great that what we're starting with is a ban.”

Schnell said he agreed that punitive punishments like solitary confinement have not been an “effective” solution in the long term and the goal is to use it only in the most “limited of circumstances.” He said that the DOC is looking into a more incentives-based approach to prison management to lessen the use of solitary confinement.

Instead of banning solitary confinement, Schnell said he hopes the Legislature will help the DOC by funding mental health services for prisoners and supporting the DOC’s push toward creating honors units in prisons. These honor units, similar to policies in Norway, would be unique sections of the prisons for prisoners with good behavior who would be given more freedom, flexibility and movement — like letting them prepare their own food — to better prepare them to reintegrate into society.

The bill also places regulations around segregated housing, most of which are currently required by the DOC. Regulations in the bill include providing thermal clothing to inmates in segregated housing if they do not have any, and guaranteeing access to a mirror, clock and calendar to retain a sense of time and prevent distortion.

Sue Abderholden, Minnesota National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) executive director, said in a committee meeting in 2019 that inmates placed in solitary confinement were more likely to suffer from mental illness. Of those placed in solitary confinement prior to the 2019 law’s passage, around 14% were later recommended for state-ordered mental health treatment, according to figures Abderholden presented at the time.

“Even by this narrow measure, it’s clear that inmates living with a mental illness were disproportionately subject to solitary confinement,” Abderholden said in the committee.

Abderholden said NAMI would agree with the general language of SF207.

Reliant on solitary, despite reluctance

Schnell attributed the continued reliance on solitary confinement to struggles shifting toward an incentives-based model and a handful of prisoners who don’t want to leave solitary.

“Incentives work for many, but we continue to struggle with the small number of individuals who engage in the vast majority of disciplinary incidents,” Schnell said in a statement via email. “In addition, there is a solid core of incarcerated people who will not exit the restrictive housing setting. These people will engage in serious disciplinary conduct for the sole purpose of remaining in restrictive housing.”

The over 10,000 solitary confinement placements between July 2022 and June 2023 went to around 5,200 inmates, according to the 2023 DOC restrictive housing report.

Minnesota is not the only state struggling to move away from solitary. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts passed restrictions on solitary confinement but have faced pushback from their state’s department of corrections.

In Massachusetts, the state department of corrections created Secure Adjustment Units to isolate prisoners for 21 hours, one hour short of being defined as solitary confinement, according to Bolts Magazine.

While a few states have outright bans on solitary confinement, around half of them limit or ban solitary confinement for juveniles. Minnesota currently does not.

Despite a desire to move away from solitary confinement, Schnell said banning the practice would hurt Minnesota’s prison system.

“A statutory ban on the use of restrictive housing would be unwise and unsafe,” Schnell said via email. “While we believe we can reduce the use of restrictive housing through the use of other evidence-based interventions and the centralization of facility disciplinary processes. That said, there are times that individual and facility safety considerations demand restrictive housing placement.”

The bill is awaiting a hearing in committees in both chambers.

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State board denies Duluth triple killer’s early release request

Jimmy Lovrien — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 22:33:21 GMT

ST. PAUL — The man who killed three men at a Duluth home in 1994 will continue to serve a 50-year sentence after a state board rejected his petition for release.

The Minnesota Board of Pardons denied Todd Michael Warren's petition for release at a meeting on Tuesday, Minnesota Department of Corrections spokesperson Aaron Swanum said in an email.

Warren, 48, was 18 when he gunned down Keith Hermanson, Peter Moore and Samuel Witherspoon inside 816 E. Seventh St. in the early morning of March 28, 1994.

Warren, serving three life sentences for premeditated murder, applied this summer with the Minnesota Board of Pardons seeking a commutation of the remaining portion of his court-ordered incarceration. The Board of Pardons is made up of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson.

The 48-year-old said he takes full responsibility for the crime that shocked the city and still resonates with many longtime residents today. But he asserts that he has been humbled by a nearly three-decade prison stay.

“I am no longer the same rash, arrogant boy who resorted to violence to resolve a crisis,” Warren wrote. “Today, I’d reach for a phone, not a gun.”

Warren’s request was supported by letters from family, friends and prison associates. But it received significant pushback from the victims’ families and County Attorney Kim Maki, who called the crime “one of the most grievous in the history of St. Louis County.”

Peter Moore's mother, Michele Moore, told the News Tribune on Thursday the board's decision to deny Warren's release is "the magic of unveiling the truth."

Warren, a Proctor High �� senior at the time, and all three victims were among many young people at a house party at the East Hillside home.

Warren testified that he saw his girlfriend's friend being raped and then his girlfriend with her clothing partially removed. Warren left the party with his girlfriend and other friends, drove to his parents' home, retrieved his father's .44 Magnum revolver, and returned to the East Hillside home.

Witnesses said he shot Witherspoon, who was celebrating his 21st birthday, in the face at close range. He then shot Hermanson, 20, and Moore, 21, who both fell to the ground. Moore denied any wrongdoing and pleaded for his life as Warren fired second fatal shots at both.

Indicted by a grand jury on three counts of premeditated first-degree murder, Warren admitted to shooting the victims but claimed he did not remember many key details. His attorney pursued a heat-of-passion defense, but Judge Galen Wilson ruled Warren could only introduce evidence of the alleged sexual assaults that was known to him before the shootings.

A Duluth jury in January 1995 found Warren guilty of all three murder charges. Wilson sentenced him to three life terms — but imposed them concurrently, ruling that the defendant could petition for parole after 30 years.

The Minnesota Supreme Court later affirmed the convictions but granted an appeal from prosecutor Mark Rubin, who argued the single sentence failed to recognize the severity of Warren’s actions.

Because Wilson retired by the time the appeals were exhausted, Judge John Oswald presided over the resentencing in 2000. He imposed an unusual combination of sentences: back-to-back-to-back life terms carrying minimums of 30, 10 and 10 years in prison.

The structure requires Warren to petition for and be granted parole on three separate occasions before he can be released from custody.

Warren is currently at the medium-security state prison in Moose Lake. He has eight minor infractions on file, and none since 2015, according to records obtained by the News Tribune through a data request.

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Minnesota Department of Corrections fugitive shot outside Granite Falls

Staff reports — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:10:44 GMT

GRANITE FALLS, Minn. — A suspect is reported to be in stable condition after being shot near Granite Falls by an officer with the CEE-VI Drug Task Force on Wednesday afternoon.

Chippewa County Sheriff Derek Olson said in a news release that the man was transported to a metropolitan hospital, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension reported he is in stable condition. He has not been identified.

Officers with the CEE-VI task force were attempting to apprehend a wanted Minnesota Department of Corrections fugitive near Granite Falls at approximately 3:36 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27. During the attempted apprehension, the man ran from his vehicle to the rural Granite Falls City Cemetery, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.

“The man was armed and refused to follow commands. During the apprehension, a member of the task force shot the man. Emergency medical services were dispatched, provided medical care, and took the man to a metropolitan hospital,” the news release stated.

The Minnesota BCA arrived on the scene and the investigation is ongoing.

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Ramsey County jail to reduce capacity after alleging numerous licensing violations

Kristi Belcamino / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Sat, 04 Feb 2023 19:57:27 GMT

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Corrections has ordered the Ramsey County jail to submit a plan for how it will reduce capacity after an investigation revealed staffing shortages led to delayed or denied medical treatment of inmates.

The 500-bed Ramsey County Adult Detention Center in St. Paul was given a three-day deadline to submit the plan by Monday. According to a DOC statement Friday, the investigation determined that the facility’s “failure to meet minimum staffing levels poses an imminent risk of life-threatening harm or serious injury to individuals within the facility.”

According to the DOC, the jail must “reduce its population to levels designed to ensure staffing sufficient to maintain the safety and wellbeing of those in the facility.”

In its letter detailing the investigation, the DOC found the jail had failed to transport inmates to the hospital for emergency medical care, which was a violation of a state rule governing the operations of the facility.

The DOC said it determined that between September 2022 and January 2023, some of the inmates who were denied or received delayed medical attention included a woman who had a stroke, a man who had ingested drugs, a person brought in following a car crash and a man who was bleeding for two hours before being treated.

“As the state’s licensing authority, any risk to the life and safety of those in custody must be addressed immediately,” Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said in the statement. “When the stakes are this high, taking decisive action quickly is a must.”

Sheriff Bob Fletcher sounded the alarm about overcrowding in September, and asked Ramsey County commissioners for an additional $2 million for housing inmates this year. The jail’s budget was $21.7 million in 2022.

“The care and the safety of the inmates in our jail is at risk if the population continues to grow,” Fletcher told the County Board.

On Friday night, Fletcher told the St. Paul Pioneer Press: “I share the DOC’s concerns about overcrowding in the Ramsey County jail. It’s something I’ve been actively trying to draw attention to. And it was totally predictable, caused by significant increases in crime, massive backlogs in the criminal justice system and a nationwide worker shortage.”

Fletcher went on to say that’s why the sheriff’s office has been aggressively recruiting and hiring corrections officers and asking commissioners for resources and support.

“Specifically,” he said, “we need to make better use of other facilities, such as the Ramsey County workhouse.”

“This can’t wait,” he said. “We need the County Board to take action to address the jail overcrowding.”

Until then, he added, his office will “keep working with limited staff and support to keep inmates safe.”

The Ramsey County order came five days after a similar directive was issued to the Beltrami County jail in Bemidji.

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Minnesota man goes free after 1998 murder conviction vacated

Linda Vanderwerf — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 14:31:00 GMT

WILLMAR, Minn. — Thomas Daniel Rhodes walked out of the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Moose Lake, Minnesota, Friday morning, Jan. 13, after a judge vacated two 1998 murder convictions.

He had served 24-1/2 years in prison.

Rhodes, now 63, was convicted of murder by a Kandiyohi County jury in the drowning death of his wife Jane Rhodes, 36, on Green Lake on Aug. 2, 1996.

Rhodes appealed the first- and second-degree murder convictions several times and always maintained his innocence.

Once the paperwork was processed, he was released, to be greeted by his family, including two sons and six grandchildren, and his large legal team, said Hayley Drozdowski-Poxleitner, director of communications for the Great North Innocence Project.

The Innocence Project had been involved in Rhodes’ case since 2013, she said.

The Rhodes family, from Mankato, was on vacation in Spicer, Minnesota, in 1996 when the couple decided to go for a late-night boat ride. Jane Rhodes fell off the boat and couldn't be found. A fisherman found her body the next day.

Judge Thomas Van Hon vacated the murder convictions in a remote Kandiyohi County District Court hearing Friday morning. He overturned the verdicts based on evidence that had not been shared with the defense and mistaken expert testimony.

Rhodes on Friday pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree manslaughter — culpable negligence creating unreasonable risk. He entered an Alford plea, in which a defendant does not admit guilt but admits there is enough evidence for a conviction at trial.

Rhodes agreed under Assistant Attorney General David Voigt’s questioning that neither of them wore flotation devices, though he knew his wife wasn’t a good swimmer.

He said he’d told Kandiyohi County detectives there was no light but moonlight, and wind was causing waves on the lake. He didn’t have a flashlight on the boat, and the boat didn’t have a headlight. He drove the boat about 40 mph and didn’t slow down when his wife stood up in the boat.

Van Hon accepted the Alford plea, sentenced Rhodes to four years on the manslaughter charge and gave him credit for time served, allowing his release.

Rhodes’ voice shook at times as he answered questions from the judge, Voigt and defense attorney Julie Jonas from the Innocence Project. The prosecution and defense had filed a joint petition seeking to have the convictions overturned.

After Van Hon vacated the earlier convictions, Rhodes wiped his eyes behind the dark glasses he wore during parts of the hearing.

During his 1998 trial, friends and relatives offered personal testimony about Jane Rhodes’ fear of the water and about perceived problems in their marriage. Witnesses spoke of hearing loud voices on Green Lake that night.

But perhaps some of the most important testimony came from Hennepin County Sheriff’s Deputy Captain William Chandler and Dr. Michael McGee of the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Chandler testified about water temperature and how it could have affected the movement of Jane Rhodes’ body after she drowned. It led him to claim that Rhodes misled searchers about where his wife had fallen into the water.

The Innocence Project investigators found that the water had been about 30 degrees warmer, and the warmer water would have affected how the body moved in the lake.

McGee, whose testimony has been discredited in other trials in recent years, testified that Jane Rhodes’ injuries were caused by her husband hitting her to knock her out of the boat and hitting her with the boat while she was in the water. Months before trial, McGee told then Kandiyohi County Attorney Boyd Beccue that he couldn’t be sure how Jane Rhodes sustained all her injuries. Beccue wrote a memo about the interview, and placed it in the files related to the trial.

The memo was never shared with the defense, though it could have been used in questioning McGee.

Even though Rhodes had filed previous appeals, the memo wasn’t found until the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit took up the case last year. The unit is a partnership of the attorney general’s office and Innocence Project, and reviews cases where there is a strong indication that a defendant is innocent.

At Friday’s hearing, Voigt said the memo was found in the prosecutor’s file, but there was no indication that the prosecutor intentionally withheld it and may have never been aware of it.

Drozdowski-Poxleitner said she was at the prison to see Rhodes released. “He’s so thrilled to join his family again and be a grandfather,” she said. “It’s a wonderful day; it’s why we do this work.”

In a release from the Innocence Project, Rhodes said, “I look forward to hugging my sons Eric and Jason, being a good grandfather to my six wonderful grandkids and having time to create new memories with family and friends.”

In a statement, he thanked his sons for their years of love and support and for believing in him. They were 14 and 9 when he was convicted.

He thanked his legal team, too. Jonas led a team of at least eight pro bono attorneys and numerous law students from the University of Minnesota and Mitchell Hamline law schools.

“I have always believed deeply in Thomas’ innocence, and I am so happy for him to be reunited with his family,” Jonas said in the release. She credited his release with the work of the Conviction Review Unit, whose work helped overcome procedural technicalities.

Rhodes’ sons always believed their mother’s death was a tragic accident, according to the release.

In a statement, Eric Rhodes thanked the Innocence Project and said, “Without them, my dad would be in prison for many more years. We are so thankful to have him back in our lives.”

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Transgender inmate at Minnesota men's prison sues for discrimination

Alex Derosier — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 18:45:00 GMT

MOOSE LAKE, Minn. — A transgender woman incarcerated in a Minnesota men’s prison has filed a lawsuit accusing the state corrections department of discrimination and violation of state human rights law.

Christina Lusk, a 56-year-old serving a sentence for drug possession at the Moose Lake Correctional Facility is “socially, medically, and legally” female but is not recognized as such by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, advocacy group Gender Justice said in a lawsuit filed on Lusk’s behalf. Lusk has told prison officials her placement in dormitory housing at the prison puts her “direct line of fire for violence" and that she feels unsafe.

Despite the state of Minnesota recognizing Lusk as a woman, the state corrections department placed her in a men’s prison, exposing her to discrimination and harassment, the lawsuit said. Officials declined Lusk’s request to be placed at the women’s prison in Shakopee, a decision Gender Justice said the corrections department made based on genitalia rather than legal or medical criteria.

"Denial of health care, failure to house transgender people in the appropriate facilities, and misgendering transgender people in state custody is dehumanizing and degrading," Gender Justice said in announcing the lawsuit filed Monday, June 6, in Ramsey County District Court.

Lusk was designated male at birth, and started hormone replacement therapy after coming out as transgender in 2008, according to the lawsuit. She changed her name in 2018 and was consulting with doctors about gender-affirming surgery around the time of her 2019 arrest.

The corrections department's transgender committee recommended she be placed at Moose Lake in single-cell or dormitory housing and be able to shower alone. At certain points, she was housed with as many as seven men, the lawsuit said. She filed a complaint with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights in 2020.

While incarcerated, Lusk has sought gender-affirming surgery but corrections officials have denied her request to receive it while incarcerated, despite the fact that doctors had approved her for the procedure before she went to prison, according to the lawsuit. Lusk is set to be released in 2024.

The corrections department making decisions on where to hold Lusk and denying her gender-affirming surgery is unconstitutional and violates the Minnesota Human Rights Act, Gender Justice argues in their lawsuit, which seeks damages and for Lusk to be treated as a woman by the state prison system.

In a statement, the Minnesota Department of Corrections said it is "committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of transgender incarcerated individuals" and explained it considers accommodations for transgender prisoners on a case-by-case basis. The department said it screens transgender individuals upon entry to the prison system for potential vulnerability to sexual assault, as well as medical and mental health issues. The department did not offer comment specific to Lusk's case.

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Minnesota prisons to hire tattoo artist for new program

Alex Derosier — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 15:30:00 GMT

ST. PAUL — Minnesota’s prison system is establishing a tattoo program in the hopes of giving inmates new skills and curbing the spread of bloodborne disease from illegal body art.

The state corrections department is searching for an experienced tattoo artist to oversee the establishment of one or more tattoo studios in Minnesota's prisons. Prisoners are known to create their own tattoo equipment using materials including small electric motors and ballpoint pens. Without proper sterilization, the tools can lead to the transmission of diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV, as tattooers may use contaminated needles on multiple people.

Officials hope to make tattooing safer by placing it in a controlled setting.

Corrections department spokesman Nick Kimball said hepatitis treatments can cost anywhere between $20,000 to $75,000, and the state prison system treats 80-100 inmates for the disease each year. As of January 2022, there were 7,511 people incarcerated in Minnesota prisons and past estimates placed the number of infected inmates at anywhere from 1,200 to 3,500.

“By reducing the potential for transmission of bloodborne diseases, we are creating a safer environment for everyone, including our staff, and also being more prudent with taxpayer dollars,” Kimball said in a recent tweet promoting the job listing.

https://twitter.com/NickKimball/status/1514266861797580802

Anywhere between 12% and 35% of the U.S. prison population has hepatitis C, according to the Hepatitis Education Project, a nonprofit education and advocacy organization that tracks the disease in correctional settings. The viral disease attacks the liver and can eventually be fatal. It is typically spread through intravenous drug use or unsterilized medical equipment.

In establishing a formal prison tattoo program, the state hopes to reduce recidivism by creating job opportunities for people when they leave prison, Kimball said. To that aim, the tattoo supervisor would help prisoners develop digital tattoo art portfolios, earn licenses as tattoo professionals and provide direction for future employment.

What are state prison officials looking for in a tattoo program supervisor? They want a licensed artist with at least three years of experience and a “strong, well-rounded portfolio.” The temporary position would last up to three years and pay anywhere from $58,986 to $86,923 each year. The job would be based out of the Stillwater prison, according to the state's listing.

Minnesota is not the first to experiment with a state-sponsored prison tattoo program. In 2005, Canada had a short-lived pilot program in six of its federal prisons with the aim of curbing the spread of hepatitis C and HIV.

Canada’s Conservative-led government at the time questioned the price tag of the program, which cost more than $300,000 to start and was expected to cost more than $600,000 each year, CBC News reported in 2006. The government nixed the program and opted to back other initiatives such as education programs on the risks of HIV and hepatitis C transmission from tattoos.

There is limited data on how effective legal prison tattoo programs are at reducing the transmission of bloodborne disease in prisons. Supporters of the Canadian program in the 2000s said the government did not give its tattoo program enough time to prove its effectiveness.

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