Orange is the new green, task force ed: informal Prison Population Taskforce to be audiotaped

Note: This post is part of our continuing coverage of the effort to re-open the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, a private prison owned by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

In Wednesday's post, The color of money, or orange is the new green: Koenen & Miller push for reopening CCA prison, Bluestem reported that the informal Prison Population Task Force will be meeting later this month:

[the] Prison Population Taskforce will meet on Friday, September 25 at 9:00 a.m. in Room 10 of the State Office Building, according to the Minnesota Senate calendar. The notice reads:

The meeting is for the Prison Population Taskforce, an informal discussion by a group of stakeholders including the Senate Judiciary Committee, members of the House of Representatives, and officials from state and local agencies, among others. Rep. Tony Cornish will serve as the co-chair of the meeting.

In a report in yesterday's edition of the Swift County Monitor, the task force was mentioned as a potential means by which the Prairie Correctional Facility, a private prison owned by CCA, might be reopened.

Transparency: Latz requires informal meeting to be taped

Bluestem has learned that the informal taskforce's meeting will be audiotaped at the request Senator Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, who created the task force this summer as part of his oversight for corrections as Chair of the Finance - Judiciary Budget Division and Judiciary Committees.

Since the task force is informal, rather than created through statute or executive order, there's no legal requirement for video, audio or minutes to be kept, but we're told that in the interests of transparency, Latz decided to have the audiotape created and archived.

This decision is commendable. Bluestem hopes that interested parties and media organizations such as The Uptake will also videotape the public meeting.

Who will be at the September 25 Prison Population Taskforce meeting?

In addition to the list of task force members in the chart below, some state lawmakers have sent notice to Latz that they will be at the September 25, 2015 meeting. They are:

Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato
Sen. Chris Eaton, DFL-Brooklyn Center
Sen. Dan Hall, R-Burnsville
Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson
Sen. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights
Rep. Raymond Dehn, DFL-Minneapolis
Rep. Paul Rosenthal, DFL-Edina

With the exception of Eaton, all of the senators serve with Latz on the senate Finance - Judiciary Budget Division and Judiciary Committees, so the policy under discussion will be important in the coming bonding session. Eaton serves on the state and local government committee, which may also hear materials related to criminal justice matters, as since counties maintain jails, where some felony offenders are housed.

Now in his second term, Dehn serves on the House Capital Investment and Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance committees; Dehn committed "committed a felony as a young adult [19], rebuilt his life and now advocates for those in a similar situation," the Star Tribune reported in 2013, noting that he had been granted a “pardon extraordinary" in 1982.

Rosenthal, now in his third, non-consecutive term, also serves on the Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance committee. As the legislative calendar for the September 25 meeting notes, seven-term Public Safety committee chair Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center will co-chair the discussion.

In the full text of the September 9, 2015 Swift County Monitor article embedded in our post, The color of money, or orange is the new green: Koenen & Miller push for reopening CCA prison, the paper reports that state representative Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, told the county board that Cornish has been approached about re-opening the private prison in Appleton, MN:

In the House, the chair is Rep. Tony Cornish who has been on top of this, he [Miller] said. "He has been willing and open to talk about this, and that would be an important piece, too," Miller said. Cornish spent 32 years as a law enforcement officer and is a rural legislator from Vernon Center southwest of Mankato.

A shortened version of the article for non-subscribers to the paper is online here at the Swift County Monitor's website; it does not include Miller's remarks.

Here are the task force members. John Harrington is listed as he is sitting in as the representative for the Chiefs of Police Association:

FIRST NAME	LAST NAME	AGENCY/ORGANIZATION
Tom	Roy	DOC
Kathleen	Lonergan	DOC
Ron	Latz	MN Senate Judiciary Chair
Tony	Cornish	MN House Public Safety Chair
Warren	Limmer	MN Senate Judiciary GOP Lead
Debra	Hilstrom	MN House Public Safety DFL Lead
Janet	Marshall	Judicial Council
Luke	Kuhl	Governor's Office
Nate	Reitz	Sentencing Guidelines Commission
Raeone	Magnuson	Office of Justice Programs, DPS
Cathryn	Middlebrook	Appellate Public Defender's Office
Kevin	Kajer	Board of Public Defense
Bill	Ward	Bourd of Public Defense
Robert	Small	MN County Attorney Assoc.
Ryan	Erdmann	MN Assoc. of Community Correction Act Counties (CCA)
Amy	Chavez	MN Assoc. of Co. Probation Officers (CPO)
Rebekah	Moses	MN Coalition for Battered Women
Josh	Esmay	Council on Crime and Justice
Sarah	Walker	Second Chance Coalition
Kelly	Mitchell	Robina Institute, U of MN
Mark	Haase	Defense Lawyers Assoc.
Jim	Franklin	Sheriff's Association
John	Harrington	Chiefs of Police Assoc (Harrington is a substitute for Tom Freeman)

Sarah Walker, representing the Second Chance Coalition, formerly lobbied for CCA as a consultant for Hill Capitol Strategies, a public affairs and lobbying firm that unsuccessfully bid on the Swift County lobbying effort, which Goff Public received. We reported on this wrinkle in the story in Orange is the new green, regulatory capture edition: Hill Capitol bid on county CCA lobbying.

For our earlier coverage of the plan to re-open the prison, check out the links below:

Swift Co hires Goff Public to work on reopening CCA private prison to solve state's inmate binge

Union's Director of Public Affairs & Public Policy says AFSCME opposes re-opening private prison

W. Central residents speak out for broadband, while guy who's not King of MN favors CCA.

Campaigned against it in 2014: in legislative update, Miller joins choir for rural broadband

MN17A lawmakers meet privately with Swift Co, CCA & lobbyists about private prison lease

Orange is the new green, regulatory capture edition: Hill Capitol bid on county CCA lobbying

Photo: The shuttered CCA prison in Appleton.

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