MN prison on lockdown (updated)

Update:

A Minnesota prison has “resolved without incident” a situation involving about 100 inmates in one housing unit who would not return to their cells Sunday in what one former inmate there called an act of “self-preservation” amid dangerously high temperatures in the region.

The situation was “calm, peaceful and stable throughout the day,” a Department of Corrections spokesperson said in a statement, adding that “incarcerated individuals in the unit indicated dissatisfaction” because the understaffed facility had to limit inmates’ time out of their cells.

Original story:
A Minnesota prison has been placed on emergency lockdown after about 100 inmates in one housing unit facing dangerously high temperatures would not return to their cells Sunday in what one former inmate there called an act of “self-preservation.”

The situation is “currently stable” and the reason inmates “are refusing to return to their cells remains unclear,” a Department of Corrections spokesperson said.

But advocates positioned outside of the Stillwater prison, some of whom have family members inside, said inmates are fed up from the excessive heat, limited access to showers and ice, and water.

Inmates have been on intermittent lockdowns since Friday because of staffing issues, they said, meaning they are kept in their cells, which reportedly don’t have air conditioning. The prison is in Bayport about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Minneapolis, which was under an afternoon heat advisory for temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius).

“My organization got calls from inmates who are actually inside” starting at 6:30 a.m., said Marvina Haynes of Minnesota Wrongfully Convicted Judicial Reform, whose brother is an inmate at Stillwater.

“This morning, they decided that they weren’t going to lock into their cells,” said David Boehnke of Twin Cities Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, adding there have been lockdowns on and off for the past two months.

The executive director of the union representing Stillwater’s correctional officers, Bart Andersen, said in a statement that the incident is “endemic and highlights the truth behind the operations of the MN Department of Corrections with chronic understaffing.”

Andersen said such conditions upset inmates because of restrictions on program and recreation time “when there are not enough security staff to protect the facility.”