Back at the end of December, we noted in a post that the Swift County Monitor reported in Promotion of Appleton prison to continue in 2017 that a local official thought Minnesota House Public Safety Committee chair Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, favored leasing the shuttered private prison in Appleton:
Hendrickx told fellow commissioners that it seems that the appetite to purchase isn’t as strong as it was last year; there is more of an appetite to lease, he said.
Whose appetite is favoring leasing over buying? Commissioner Ed Pederson, District 2-north Benson, asked Hendrickx.
Republican Tony Cornish, chair of the state House’s Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee, seems to have more of an appetite for a lease, Hendrickx said. The lease doesn’t require the big upfront dollar amount a purchase would, he said.
On Thursday, Andrew Mannix reported in Minn. GOP lawmakers look to reopen, lease private prison:
Given the many criticisms, Cornish said he believes the only way to pass a bill in Minnesota would be to offer to buy the site — instead of just leasing it — and staff it with state correctional workers. Still, Cornish expects a difficult road ahead.
“They’ll come up with other horrendous statistics and reasons not to do it,” Cornish said. “But that’s just part of the game I guess.”
Another fascinating difference in the rural versus metro coverage? Mannix's article focuses on projected prison overcrowding, while the county official cited in the Monitor article stresses economic development:
For the Appleton area, whether it is a lease or a purchase, it is the jobs that are important, Hendrickx said. But it is also important that the agreement that is reached whether a purchase or a lease shows a commitment to use the facility for the long term to ensure job stability, Hendrickx said. [emphasis added]
Sentencing reform? Repurposing the facility in the event of prison population decline? Doesn't seem to be on the radar in Swift County.
This emphasis as prisoner-keeping as economic development continues in a new Monitor article about Swift County's hiring Goff Public again to lobby the state legislature about re-opening the Appleton prison. The article isn't online, but we post photos below for our readers' convenience.
As the last sentence in the lede notes, "Retaining the company is related to 2017 economic development priorities, it [a memo of understanding] said." Doubtless, we'll hear less of this at the state capitol and more about how much the citizens of Swift County care about overcrowding as well as the aspirations and souls of the incarcerated.
Here are photos of the latest article in the Swift County Monitor about the lobbying contract with Goff Public:
In an editorial in the same issue, the paper itself stresses the economic benefits of re-opening the prison:
Support the Prairie Correctional Facility
Of all 87 counties in Minnesota no county saw a greater turnaround in its numbers voting Democratic to voting Republican than Swift County. Only four times in 100 years has Swift County voted Republican – 2016 was the first time since 1952.
If Democrats want to win back Swift County, and if Republicans want to hold on to it, fight for the reopening of the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton. It once provided up to 350 jobs for people living in 24 rural Minnesota counties. It provided a payroll of $13 to $15 million for the region.
Proceed with sentencing reform, reduce the numbers who need to be jailed for drug offenses, but when state prison beds are still full and you are still using county jails to house state inmates, act to invest in rural Minnesota by using the Appleton prison.
The editor also hopes for "people creation," child care and education funding. Here's hoping that the legislature puts as much effort into those items as to opening a prison. Perhaps a poor farm might do.
Photo: Is Appleton the zombie prison that won't die, just as zombie ziprail can't be buried in the graveyard of failed economic development schemes?
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