A state prison in Minnesota is in lockdown after approximately 100 inmates reportedly took over the facility Sunday morning, officials say.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) revealed Sunday that it has activated members of its Crisis Negotiation Team and the Special Operations Response Team after approximately 100 inmates at the Stillwater Correctional Facility refused to return to their cells, the Star Tribune reported.
BREAKING: About 100 inmates have “taken over” living unit inside Stillwater Prison, the DOC confirms https://t.co/Q9uNyr4V1I
— WCCO | CBS News Minnesota (@WCCO) September 3, 2023
The DOC has confirmed that all of its prison staff have been removed from the common area of the facility’s housing unit and two correctional officers are safely situated within the unit’s secure control area, the outlet stated. Those officers are reportedly in contact with command personnel, Fox 9 reported. (RELATED: Riot Kills At Least 46 At Women’s Prison In Honduras)
DOC Spokesman Andy Skoogman revealed that the incident, as yet, has produced no reported injuries and has classified the ongoing situation as “stable.” Skoogman was unable to give a specific reason for the uprising, the Star Tribune reported.
The Stillwater Correctional Facility was built in 1914 and is Minnesota’s largest close-security institution for adult males. The facility is comprised of seven living units inside and features a minimum-security unit outside the main perimeter.
In July, it was reported that inmates in Minnesota’s prisons — including Stillwater — are sweltering in the summer heat as nine of the state’s prisons do not have air conditioning. Zeke Caligiuri was inspired to pen the short story “There Will Be Seeds For Next Year,” after spending such a summer in the 109-year-old stone prison of Stillwater.
‘The old walls were sweating under the heat. Guys started fights with each other just to go to the AC in segregation, until the AC broke and they were stuck in the death chambers back there. People sat on their steel toilets and flushed them over and over to stay cool,” Caliguiri wrote of the prison.
Caliguiri remarked that during those sweltering days, tensions often escalated within the prison walls. “If human beings on a regular basis don’t feel like their human needs are taken care of and then something else comes in and agitates that, you will get tension,’ he stated.
This is a breaking story and will be updated as more information becomes available.