Prairie Correctional Facility, private prison, not re-opening soon, says Rep. Andrew Falk
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| Prairie Correctional Facility closed in early 2010. |
Prairie Correctional Facility has been closed since February 2010. A report by the Minnesota Independent on the growth of private-prisons giant Corrections Corporation of America suggested that the facility will re-open in "early 2012" and serve as a prison for California's overflow of inmates, which Falk denies.
But that doesn't mean he doesn't want CCA to revive the facility -- and bring hundreds of prison jobs to his district.
Minnesota Independent reported about the prison corporation's plans to house California inmates in Appleton based on a November 2010 posting by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to that effect.
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| Andrew Falk doesn't think Prairie Correctional in Appleton is reopening soon. |
City Pages called Falk, a DFL-er representing District 20, to ask if that was true. According to the legislator, CCA officials denied that there are plans to re-open the jail.
"The facility is sitting there idle," Falk said. "We want the jobs back."
He says that the Appleton facility was one of the largest property taxpayers in Swift County, Minnesota, since it was created in the early 1990s -- and also one of the top employers in the area.
"It could be a couple hundred to three hundred jobs," he says.
The jail closed in 2010 because Minnesota lawmakers expanded Minnesota correctional facilities in Faribault and Moose Lake, lessening the need for a private facility in Appleton.
CCA did not respond to a request for comment.
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