Perimeter security for Minnesota correctional facilities Page: 1 of 11
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Perimeter security for Minnesota correctional facilities
David Crist
Acting Assistant Commissioner-Institutions
Minnesota Department of Corrections
1450 Energy Park Drive RE. 1
St. Paul, Minnesota 55108
NOV 2 61996
Debra D. Spencer Q S ~ ,
Sandia National Laboratories
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-5800
KEYWORDS: perimeter security; corrections; correctional facility; prison; perimeter design;
security.
Abstract
For the past few years, the Minnesota Department of Corrections, assisted by Sandia National Laboratories, has
developed a set of standards for perimeter security at medium, close, and maximum custody correctional facilities
in the state. During this process, the threat to perimeter security was examined and concepts about correctional
perimeter security were developed. This presentation and paper will review the outcomes of this effort, some of the
lessons learned, and the concepts developed during this process and in the course of working with architects,
engineers and construction firms as the state upgraded perimeter security at some facilities and planned new
construction at other facilities.
DISTRIBtTON OF THiS DOCUW\T IS UNIM15t0D
2. History
There are seven prisons in Minnesota, housing approximately 5000 adult felons. Seventy percent of all offenders
are convicted of crimes against a person, including murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping and assault. There are four
security classifications: maximum, close, medium and minimum.
Maximum security is reserved for offenders with the most violent crimes on the streets and whose behaviors in
prison create concerns for the security and well-being of others. Offenders' movement within the facility is severely
restricted and scheduled. They are housed one to a cell in living units of fifty-two men. The maximum facility is
horseshoe shaped and the exterior of the horseshoe is earth bermed to the level of the roof. There is a taut wire
system on the interior edge of the roof. The double perimeter fence is three hundred yards away and is equipped
with razor ribbon and another perimeter detection device.
There are two close security facilities. Inmates still live one to a cell, but there is somewhat more freedom of
movement within the prison. One of these facilities is over one hundred years old and is surrounded by the longest
continuous granite vall in the world.
The other, the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater (MCF-STW), is an eighty-five year old prison located in
the St. Croix Valley twenty miles east of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. There are one million
interior square feet, most of which is encircled by a 22 foot stone and cement wall topped with guard towers.
Approximately one thousand three hundred close custody inmates are housed in single cells in living units of two
hundred fifty. Cells are stacked four tiers high. Each tier is sixty-four cells long (approximately 520 feet). The
largest living units are located in the main building of the institution.
This work was supported by the United States Department of Energy under Contract
DE-AC04-94AL85000. Sandia isa multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia
Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the Untied States Department of Energy.
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Crist, D. & Spencer, D.D. Perimeter security for Minnesota correctional facilities, article, December 31, 1996; Albuquerque, New Mexico. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc688374/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.