On Wednesday, Sen. Andrew Lang (R-Olivia) introduced a bill that would direct state officials to either purchase or lease-to-own the Prairie Correctional Facility, an unused prison located in Appleton, MN. Senate File 1322, aims at both bring jobs back to a rural community and ease the burden of prison overcrowding by making make use of the 1,600-bed facility that has sat empty since it closed in 2010.

“This legislation would bring jobs back to the Appleton area, a community which has experienced economic hardship since the prison’s closing,” said Sen. Lang. “At the same time, by 2022, there will be a projected 1,300 more inmates than capacity in the state prison system. This bill would directly address the serious problem of prison overcrowding in Minnesota.

“I am very concerned about the services that are not available to overflow-inmates when they are housed in temporary facilities instead of correctional institutions. It is important that inmates have access to education, substance abuse treatment, and mental health care prior to their return to society,” Sen. Lang continued.

Since the legislation calls for either a purchase or lease-to-own agreement between the state and the facility’s owners, it would be entirely managed and run by the Department of Corrections. This 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.