Legislation intended to reopen the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton was heard on Tuesday, as the joint House and Senate judiciary and public safety omnibus conference committee considered including it in the final budget bill. The bill, authored by Sen. Andrew Lang (R-Olivia), would direct state officials to either purchase or enter a lease-to-own agreement for the now-empty facility located in Appleton, Minnesota, should the need for additional space arise.

“The Appleton facility has sat empty since 2010. At the same time, our state’s prisons are overcrowded, and inmates are double- or triple-bunked and not receiving adequate services that will allow them to re-enter society productively,” said Sen. Lang. “With a projected 1,300 more inmates than capacity in the state’s corrections system by 2022, we have an opportunity to address this problem head-on in a way that simply makes sense.”

The legislation would direct the state to enter an agreement within one year of the department determining it has insufficient offender housing. The facility would be entirely managed and operated by the Department of Corrections and would be staffed by state employees. In addition, the bill has the support of officials in Swift County, which lost over 350 jobs and saw its unemployment rate spike to one of the highest in the state following the prison’s closing.

The House version of the legislation, sponsored by Rep. Tim Miller (R-Prinsburg), was included in its judiciary and public safety omnibus bill, but the bill did not receive a hearing in the Senate. The conference committee will now decide whether to move forward with the bill language or to leave it out altogether.

“I am concerned about the lack of offender services when inmates are housed in temporary facilities; prior to their return to society, it is important that inmates have access to education, substance abuse treatment, and mental health care,” Sen. Lang continued. “As a state, we need to be looking at all available options for easing the burden on our corrections system, as well as putting people back to work. That, coupled with the enormous cost savings to the state and the economic value to the area, makes this an easy decision.”

Sen. Lang is serving his first term representing Senate District 17, which includes communities in Chippewa, Kandiyohi, Renville, and Swift counties in west central Minnesota.