Fact check: Did Andrew Falk never author legislation related to Appleton private prison?

Bluestem is no friend of private prisons, so this fact check relates only to a claim made about legislation related to the Appleton prison in a lit piece Representative Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, has been distributing in doorknocks and lit drops in Minnesota House District 17A.

As the photo above shows, the lit piece states that Andrew Falk "Never proposed or offered a bill addressing the Appleton prison closure." The prison closed in February 2010, according to a report by Minnesota Public Radio.

Falk maintains otherwise, stating that he worked with the late State Senator Gary Kubly, DFL-Granite Falls, on language that would require the Department of Correction to house prisoners in the Appleton prison.

Kubly, who died in of ALS in March 2016, represented the old Senate District 20 prior to redistricting in 2012. Then-state representative Lyle Koenen, DFL-Clara City, won the special election to fill the vacant Kubly seat, then secured the SD17 seat in the 2012 general election by defeating state senator Joe Gimse (old SD 13), R-Willmar, when redistricting landed both men in the same new district.

Miller's claim that Falk "never" proposed or offered a bill addressing the Appleton prison is false.

On March 4, 2010, Falk introduced HF3375, which would have shifted control of a portion of the Moose Lake Correctional facility from the commissioner of corrections to the commissioner of human services, and transferring offenders who had been incarcerated to private prisons.

 

In Minnesota, that would be the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton.

 

The language is here.

 

Relevant text: "requiring the commissioner of corrections to incarcerate offenders from the transferred portion [of Moose Lake] in private prisons" and "appropriating money for costs incurred by the Department of Corrections to incarcerate the offenders transferred to private prisons."

 

This is unlike Miller's proposed bill (HF3223), which did not appropriate funds for operating the Appleton facility. Read the Fiscal Note  on  HF3223 for an idea of what the nonpartisan staff at the Minnesota House Fiscal Analysis Department estimated running the prison would cost.

 

And there's this in the Falk bill:

No later than December 31, 2010, the commissioner of corrections shall transfer 50 percent of the offenders incarcerated at the Minnesota  Correctional Facility-Moose Lake to a privately owned and operated medium security correctional facility within the state if the commissioner is able to negotiate an agreement  to do so with the facility. If the commissioner is unable to successfully negotiate an agreement with the facility, the commissioner shall transfer the offenders to other state or locally operated correctional facilities or to privately owned correctional facilities  in other states.

We're guessing CCA would have wanted the facility to be generating revenue, rather than sitting idle.

 

Kubly was the chief author of the state senate companion bill, SF2876. While Falk's bill had no co-authors, Kubly was joined by four colleagues from both sides of the aisle:

• Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria
• Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin
• Steve Murphy, DFL Red Wing
• Joe Gimse, R-Willmar

While not being accurate about Falk's record, Miller has been successful in making the closed prison more of an issue for the district. Koenen had served in the House until the special election in 2012, but didn't sign on to the 2010 Falk-Kubly bill, and still beat Gimse in the 2012 special election.

In 2016, however, Koenen is the chief author of the senate companion bill, SF3192. Falk, on the other hand, now proposes buying the prison for its assessed tax value and re-purposing it as a mental health and substance abuse treatment center.

Photo: The Miller lit piece with the claim about Falk's inaction on the Appleton prison.

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