Prison officials say a proposed fence would mirror those at college campuses. The fence envisioned is similar to the one pictured. (Submitted photo)
A fence with barbed wire encircles the water tower across from the state women’s prison in Shakopee. A plain chain-link fence lines the Catholic cemetery.
But five years after local opposition to a prison fence made for national comedy on “The Daily Show,” the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee continues to be protected by a hedge.
“The water tower is more secure than the prison,” said John Schadl, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Corrections.
The prison’s 2006 request for a fence failed to receive funding after drawing opposition from neighborhood residents and some Shakopee City Council members. Without community support, later bonding proposals gained little traction at the Legislature.
With new faces on the City Council and the 2012 legislative bonding season fast approaching, the DOC appears to be putting its full weight toward securing $5.4 million in state funding next year for a 12-foot perimeter fence.
Shakopee Mayor-elect Brad Tabke was briefed during a recent tour of the correctional facility. And state Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan, who supports the fence project, was also updated on the prison’s latest proposal, which calls for one fence instead of the two from an earlier plan.
A community advisory panel will meet next week ahead of a neighborhood meeting scheduled for 1 to 2 p.m. Jan. 12 on the proposal. (Postcards are going out to neighbors).
NEW PROPOSAL
With an inmate count today of 559 versus 92 when the current facility opened in 1986, and a worsening offender population, cor-rections officials believe the time is long past for a fence.
“We feel the community is safe now, but it’s still a prison,” said Schadl.
And they say the fence is just as much about protecting the outside public as it is protecting inmates from old boyfriends or asso-ciates.
There’s nothing to stop someone from walking onto the prison grounds, which looks like a college campus, or tossing contraband into a bush or near a building (which has happened). Each day, the prisoners leave their living quarters and walk outside to enter the dining facility, Tabke was told.
“We’re worried about the safety of offenders and staff,” Schadl said.
The proposed fence has brick columns with wrought iron-like bars that curve at the top. It is supposed to match the prison’s col-lege campus-look.
A previous plan had two fences, separated by open space, with the inner fence constructed of chain link and wired so anyone try-ing to climb it would set off an elaborate alarm system.
(In addition to a fence, the prison is seeking funding to expand its intake and segregation areas through internal renovation.)
If he lived in the neighborhood, Schadl said he would be concerned about how the fence would look.
However, Schadl said the fence, similar to one surrounding St. Catherine University in St. Paul, is nothing extreme, with no barbed wire.
It’s his contention that “good fences make good neighbors.”
The department, he said, intends to stick to the deal it struck with Shakopee when the current facility was built in 1986: to keep the prison in context with the surrounding community. (The prison dates back to 1919 in Shakopee.)
However, some neighbors believe the very proposal for a fence shows the prison is housing an inmate population that violates that deal.
“They assured us — don’t worry, it won’t be dangerous people,” said neighbor Scott Duffney. “They’ve kind of been cheating on that.”
The arguments the prison gave soon-to-be-Mayor Tabke about the need for a fence made sense, he said. However, he still wants to hear what neighbors have to say.
“If the opposition is purely aesthetic, I think the DOC did a good job of addressing that,” said Tabke, who has heard from some residents already due to his online postings. “If there are other issues, I need to understand them.”
Duffney is open to learning more about the prison’s rationale for a fence. However, if the reason is dangerous inmates, perhaps the question ought to be whether such inmates should be housed in the heart of a residential area and across from an elementary school in the first place, he said.
“Maybe now is the time to say we have to segregate and put the worst offenders in a more secure environment [outside of Shako-pee],” he said.
Tabke said the prison is currently required to expel any prisoner who talks about escaping, due to the lack of a fence. These inmates are sent to another prison outside of Minnesota since no other state prisons take women.
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Sure the community was told that there will be no 'dangerous' inmates but the way I see it; a criminal is a criminal and there is no way to assume their actions -especially after having their freedom taken away.
I do not live in this community nor do I live in the state of Minnesota however, if my input is valued, I say a fence is more than appropriate for this situation.
These fences have been used in such surroundings as lunatic asylums which in a manner of speaking is what we are speaking of here. If the community is concerned with a child falling into the fence a simple three foot chain link fence atop the wall would be a possible solution – still a fence but not the huge thing that many seem to be against.