Update December 11: As we predicted below back on December 3, local radio would probably announce this event. Sure enough, on December 10, Willmar Radio reported Miller, Lang to host meeting on reopening PCF in Appleton Wednesday. An interesting wrinkle in JP Cola's report:
..Miller says right now the owner of PCF, Core-Civic, is working with the Trump Administration regarding possibly housing detainees for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Miller says he doesn't have any info on where that process stands. Prairie Correctional Facility at one time employed around 350 people but closed it's doors in 2010 after The State of Minnesota stopped contracting to house prisoners there. Subsequent discussion about reopening the 1600-bed facility has met with stiff resistance from state employee unions and civil rights groups who oppose the idea of privately-owned prisons. Miller says local support for reopening PCF has been great, similar to the local support they've received for creating a veteran's nursing home in Montevideo.
As readers know, the location for tonight's town hall was used back in August by area residents opposed to the hypothetical ICE contract as we reported at the time in s Opposition to CoreCivic bid to re-open Appleton Prison as ICE detention center meet ...
Miller also tells Wilmar Radio:
Miller says it's been about a year-and-a-half since there has been a public meeting regarding PCF. Legislation passed in 2017 mandated that the state consider using PCF before they discuss building any new prison facilities in the state...
Indeed, the state issued a report that we covered in January 2018's #Mnleg ordered study: Appleton private prison bed rent more expensive than county jail cell.
Read the entire 241-page MN Prairie Correctional Facility - Architectural Assessment online.
There's another longer report, MN Prairie Correctional Facility - Facility Condition Assessment (FCA) online as well. [end update]
Via one of Minnesota state representative Tim Miller's Facebook pages, we learned that he and state senator Andrew Lang, R-Olivia, will be holding a "town hall discussion on the prison" on Wednesday, December 11, 7:00 p.m. at Shooter's Bar and Grill in Appleton.
Miller captioned the graphic at the top of this post with this message:
Join Senator Andrew Lang and I to discuss the current status of the prison in relationship to state and DOC plans. Rep. Jeff Backer and possibly other legislators will be joining us as well.
Representative Backer, R-Browns Valley, represents the house district to the west of Miller's turf.
Update December 3, 2019: editor's note--some friends have noted that they thought the issue with the prison was settled. They were thinking of proposals to ICE to use the facility to detain unauthorized immigrants. We read Miller's text: the current status of the prison in relationship to state and DOC plans" to not deal with federal agency plans. [end update]
The event isn't listed at the moment on the Upcoming Meetings in the District for Rep. Tim Miller (R) page that opens when one clicks the Town Hall Meetings link on Miller's official page at the Minnesota Legislature, nor is it on the New House Republican Caucus page on the same website.
Nor is it listed in News on the Minnesota Senate Republicans website or on Senator Lang's page there.
Perhaps local radio and the West Central Tribune--both of which provide daily news in the area--will pick up on the event. Most of the small town newspaper in the area are weeklies.
The long-shuttered Prairie Corrections Facility in Appleton is privately owned by CoreCivic, the corporation formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America.
Readers might remember that Shooter's was the location for meeting of those against re-opening the facility, as we reported in August's Opposition to CoreCivic bid to re-open Appleton Prison as ICE detention center meet to Tuesday.
According to co-sponsor Land Stewardship Project, over 170 people attended. Here's a picture of the August anti-prison re-opening meeting at Shooter's:
We also reported in August that MN Republican Senate & House federal PACs took $5000 from CoreCivic PAC in 2018.
Other posts about the anti-prison organizing from last August:
- Land Stewardship Project: LSP member leaders oppose ICE detention facility at Appleton prison
- West Central Tribune coverage of opposition to possible use of Appleton CoreCivic prison by ICE
Photo: From the Land Stewardship Project post,"Over 170 people in western Minnesota attended a meeting Tuesday, August 13, to grow opposition to opening an ICE detention center in Appleton, Minn."
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