Stillwater prison 2.0: Barbers, gardeners and artists. The DOC is testing ‘earned living units’ prior to 2029 closure.

The Stillwater prison looks smells and sounds like a totally different place these days As Minnesota Department of Corrections bureaucrats prepare for the upcoming closure of the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater in Bayport in entire cell blocks have been shuttered The prison s population once is now just The number of staff working at the prison also has dropped dramatically In June when the phased closure was informed there were staff working at Stillwater There are now Largest part striking is a radical change in activities Earned living units designed for inmates who have done well during their time in prison launched in September and will remain in effect until the prison closes by June The men selected to participate as of Thursday have made their own population rules established accountability structures and have been responsible for choosing incentives DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell disclosed the intention is to replicate earned living units honors units and incentive-based living units in all facilities in the coming years Earned living units require fewer staff guidance allowing correctional facilities to direct staffing materials where they are preponderance needed This approach supports a safer more stable habitat for incarcerated people and staff Schnell stated Members of the media were invited to tour the units on Thursday and got to see the prison s first barber shop called Street Cuts the prison s new and improved tattoo shop two new barbeque grills the newsroom of The Mirror the oldest continuously published prison publication in the world and the start of a new inmate-designed mural honoring Corrections Officer Joseph Gomm who was bludgeoned to death by an inmate at the Stillwater prison in Lt Sam Marks in the entryway of Cell Hall B-East John Autey Pioneer Press We went through a complete stated Lt Sam Marks standing in the middle of Cell Hall B East If you would have walked down this hall a insufficient years ago you would have been terrified I was the lead negotiator when we had our sit-in and inmates refused to go back to the rooms The amount of violence I ve seen here in the last eight years it s astounding Particular of it will never leave me Marks a -year veteran of the DOC called the new approach transformative It s a different way of dealing with people on both ends You sort of get institutionalized and we re kind of coming out of that It s a good thing I don t think the closure is a good thing but I think that what we re doing here is a good thing Extra space Each of the inmates in Cell Hall B are assigned two cells one for sleeping and one for using however they want Marks noted Several use the extra space for storing their possessions making art or even in the event of Vincent Walker growing an indoor herb garden The cells in the earned living units are locked only at night and during the daily count Vincent Walker shows a list of herbs and peppers that he and Damon DiMartino rear are growing in an empty cell they have converted into a greenhouse John Autey Pioneer Press Walker came to the earned living unit from Stillwater s minimum-security unit where he worked in the prison s garden and took a horticulture class When DOC leaders questioned what he yearned to do with his second cell Walker explained he requested to create a greenhouse complete with growing lights We ve got four varieties of basil Italian lemon purple and Thai Walker commented during a tour of the small bright space We also have cilantro oregano rosemary thyme lemon mint peppermint and mountain mint We keep track of the number of days for the harvest times On Thursday Walker was working on germinating pepper seeds in compostable egg cartons Among the varieties cayenne Hungarian hot wax poblano California wonder jalapeno and Hungarian sweet wax he revealed I don t know how hot they ll be announced Walker who is scheduled for release in January We re going to find out New barber shop Over in the prison s lower recreation area inmate Joe Soltis was giving a high-taper fade to fellow inmate Alex Keaton at the prison s new barber shop Soltis helped design and decorate the four-chair shop Street Cuts which opened five weeks ago he declared Licensed barber Joe Soltis trims fellow inmate Jordan Denk s hair at the new barber shop called Street Cuts John Autey Pioneer Press We started with a blank slate reported Soltis a licensed barber who has been cutting hair for years Before each cell block had one cell that was designated for cutting hair For years I ve been trying to get something like this and it completely happened I m proud of it I m proud of where it is It s not just a barbershop it s a place for the guys to come down and literally connect with each other and just enjoy being almost like outside of prison because it truly is nice Soltis who has served years of his -year sentence revealed he is grateful that DOC personnel launched the ELU effort I ve invariably needed to say this Prison can be a prison if prisoners act like prisoners Soltis reported This is a building where people are acting like a area People are coming together It s like any time we turn around and say Hey we need selected contributors We got people jumping to help He mentioned you don t have to constantly remind the inmates who they are We know who we are and we know what we ve done and we re trying to give back to the society in any way we can Soltis reported But we re also trying to make it better for people who come here make mistakes and learn from those mistakes At the end of the day you have to earn your place here every single day Related Articles ICE says they arrested for immigration violations at St Paul warehouse Jury convicts nd man in Coon Rapids triple murder rd sexual assault matter against former Bethel football member dismissed Margin Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with suspicious progress patterns Twin Cities ICE employee charged in child sex sting Bloomington police say Soltis next customer inmate Keith Grube was drinking coffee and sitting in a lounge chair as he waited his turn I haven t sat in something this reassured in years he commented I hope they ll expand this to other facilities once everybody sees how well this is run This is amazing what they re doing Everybody is pulling together It s like nothing I ve ever seen before I was in the function and I saw particular glimpses of people coming together but I m really seeing it here Grube reported he transferred to the earned living unit at Stillwater from Moose Lake in September When I got here I had to wait a week for all my property and I didn t even mind because it was that much better already he commented Tattoo shop Up in the prison s new tattoo shop relocated to the former art room from a space near the prison s laundry area in the basement inmate Daniel Gonzales was putting the finishing touches on inmate Matthew Fahey s full-back tattoo The design is a Gonzales original a fire-breathing dragon and a knight Licensed tattoo artist Daniel Gonzales continues working on fellow inmate Matthew Fahey s back piece in the new tattoo studios at the Minnesota Corrections Facility - Stillwater in Bayport on Thursday Nov The prison is in the process of being shut down with inmates slowly being placed in other facilities John Autey Pioneer Press Gonzales noted he was selected to live in the earned living unit because of good behavior doing activities and staying out of trouble When I first came into prison I was getting into trouble doing illegal tattoos and things like that he noted But after a while I changed Something in me just clicked and I changed what I was doing Ever since then it s been an upward momentum of more positive things Gonzales revealed the positivity and leniency gives inmates room to grow When you re surrounded by negativity it tends to rub off on you The opposite is also true When you re surrounded by positivity it also rubs off on you I ve seen it in the guys We have something really good going on and it s more responsibility too because it s not only for us it s for the possibility of other people to be able to do it later on Landmark transformation Timothy O Meara an associate editor with The Prison Mirror newspaper looks at art for an upcoming edition John Autey Pioneer Press The launch of the earned living units activity is a landmark transformation for the DOC mentioned inmate Timothy O Meara an associated editor of The Mirror It s the big story the lead story of our next issue he explained It s a big leap for the Department of Corrections They re not exactly known for jumping into things and trying new things but the transition to this new structure is just amazing I can t even express to you how different it is just the circumstances and the people It s absolutely a radical change Inmate Bryan Eaker who also serves as an associate editor at the newspaper explained he felt a few trepidation coming to Stillwater from Moose Lake in September to take part in the earned living units activity It was really scary he reported Just because of everything that you hear about Stillwater He commented when his bus arrived and he saw the building the thought he had made a mistake I can t believe that I can say that I m in Stillwater and I m enjoying being in Stillwater Eaker noted That s weird to even think that that s a possibility O Meara and Eaker revealed they are doing all they can to make sure the ELU continues on into the future We re hoping that the Department of Corrections is going to see the wisdom in having a facility like this O Meara disclosed They re taking a chance you know and they re giving us an opportunity to show that we deserve to be here That s our hope that not only will it be here for us but it will continue on after we re gone Eaker noted he is optimistic that that will be the circumstance There s been such a mentality shift he commented I mean you re asking IPs incarcerated people to be different IPs you re asking staff to be different staff and you re asking administration to be different administration And if one of those doesn t work it s not going to work Related Articles Woodbury donates to food shelf using new charitable gambling fund Woodbury man gets years in federal prison for extorting minors after coercing sexually explicit videos New M shelter for homeless and their pets set to open in Washington County Olympics will be Jessie Diggins last Here s why Oak Park Heights Taco Bell Mom Brenda Foley marks years Marks the lieutenant revealed he is all-in in making sure it works It s so nice to be able to come to work and say Hello and How are you doing to these guys and get it back and just have a pleasant atmosphere where we can kind of heal and they can change We both can Marks commented It s my job to send these guys out better than they came in and I think I can do that in a facility like this In addition to launching the earned living units DOC officers have expanded the prison s Atlantis substance-use medication effort increasing access to substance-use disorder therapy across the agency As of Thursday the effort was at its full maximum of inmates The rest of the prison population not eligible for an earned living unit inmates are in segregation