Prison ‘industry’ a big business

By Alan Linda | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I acquired a schedule of all this year’s televised Vikings games the other day.

It came from a fellow who was just released from the Minnesota State Correctional Facility at Rush City, Minnesota. I’m not really sure where Rush City is, but I think it’s over on the east side of the state somewhere.

He had just finished his fifth year in prison—I know, “correctional facility” sounds a lot more constructive, and proactive, and challenging to the inmate, but let’s face it: He knows, I know, and you know it’s a prison.

It’s a prison with 109 cable television stations, which was why he had the Vikings schedule, matter of fact, and each prisoner who can come up with two hundred bucks can have his own TV in his own cell, which he shares with one other prisoner. My first question was: How can you watch two separate televisions at once. “Earphones,” he answered.

How come a 12-inch television set costs so much, I asked him.

He replied: “Because they have a transparent housing around them.”

Transparent? Like you can see all the electronic things inside them?

“Right,” he answered. “That way, we can’t hide stuff inside them.”

What kind of stuff? I’m pretty interested in all this, since I’ve never been inside a prison, and apparently have reached an age where I no longer have the ambition required to stick up a convenience store, or to try to figure out how to manufacture drugs.

“Oh, like drugs,” he answered. Oh.

What’s your average day like, I asked him.

“We’re up at 6 a.m., off to chow, which is in another building, then back to open holding in our cells from then to about 10:30 a.m., when they run a loose count on us just before lunch.”

Then after lunch, if they have a job — and Rush City is now making all Minnesota’s license plates — it’s back to work until about 4:30 p.m., when they can go outside to the “dog run,” as they call it, which is a small fenced-in area outside the building.

What if you’re not where you’re supposed to be?

“Oh, that’s called being in an unauthorized area, then you’re in deep dodo, and they might throw you in the seg (segregation) hole, and, depending upon how many times you’ve screwed up, you might be there for 30 days, can’t leave that cell.”

After supper, before “yard” for an hour, which is when they can go outside, there’s a hard lockdown and head count, and then until 8 p.m., they can go to the library, or the gym.

Do you have steel bars on your cell door?

“Nope, they’re steel solid doors with a thin vertical window in them.”

Do you always have to be back in your cell?

“Uh uh. You can either be back in your cell watching TV or you can hang out in the flag, which is an open public space in your building. If you’re in your cell, no one messes with you,” he said, kind of adding that last bit. He talked a bit more about knowing where to not hang out because of gangs and stuff.

“A lot of how easy you’ve got it depends on your ‘cellie,’ (cell mate),” he said. “The best is to get in with a lifer, because they know the best ways to get through with no hassles.”

What happens if you screw up just a little bit?

He said, “You get a ‘minor,’ which means you can’t come out to the open space in your building. You have to hang out in your cell.”

When do you have to be back in your cell?

“Final lockdown is at 8 p.m.”

He showed me the canteen list, which was 20 pages of fine-print listing of all the various things that can be ordered to be delivered to your cell. The prices were pretty good. Maybe he gets back in, he can fix me up with some of the drugstore medication stuff?

He looked at me, like, he’s not going back in, no way!

Here’s some basic information about the Minnesota prison system. There are facilities at, and I’ve listed them largest to smallest, regarding the number of inmates held at them: Stillwater, Lino Lakes, Faribault, Prairie Correctional Facility, St. Cloud, Rush City, Moose Lake, Oak Park Heights, Shakopee. There are a few more, but they hold very few people.

Right now, there are over 9,000 prisoners in the state adult inmate population, with about half of them in for offenses against persons, like homicide, assault, criminal sexual conduct, etc. The other half are in for offenses like drugs, property, DWI, etc.

Their average age is 36, only 1500 or so have finished high school, although 800 of them have some college, although it wasn’t made clear if they had graduated from a college.

Finally, if a prisoner does get a good job within the prison system, the prison takes 80 percent of it against their room and board. Still, that’s more money left to them than the few bucks a month they get for incidentals.

The prison industry in Minnesota costs us $460 million a year. Still, I really don’t want to visit.

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Alan Linda writes from his New York Mills home.