Star Tribune
Stillwater prison protest ‘resolved’ after inmates refused to return to cells
The Stillwater state prison will remain on lockdown until at least Tuesday after about 100 inmates refused to return to their cells for about seven hours on Sunday.
Officials from the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) said the situation has been “resolved without incident” and no one was hurt. The Bayport facility was placed on lockdown at around 8 a.m. Sunday as prisoners protested problems stemming from staff shortages.
DOC spokesman Andy Skoogman said the situation was “calm, peaceful and stable” throughout the day. The facility remained on lockdown status after nearly all prisoners returned to their cells around 3 p.m. Sunday.
Reports were mixed regarding what triggered the protest within the prison.
Skoogman said some of the incarcerated men in the unit were dissatisfied because cell release schedules were modified over the Labor Day holiday weekend, meaning prisoners had less time than usual for showers, phone use and recreation.
The DOC said schedules had to be modified due to “staffing challenges.”
On Sunday morning, about 225 men from one housing unit were released from their cells to shower, call their relatives and socialize, but about 100 refused to return to their cells around 8 a.m. Skoogman said DOC staff were quickly removed from the common areas of the housing unit while two correctional officers stayed in the unit’s secure control area. The two officers in the secure control area were in constant communication with facility command personnel during the incident, he said.
The protesting prisoners were calm, talking with each other and playing cards, Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said during a news conference Sunday afternoon. “There was never any type of violence throughout the incident,” Schnell said.
Prison Chaplain Scott Westphal reiterated that no one was hurt and that the matter with inmates and correctional officers was handled in a “very peaceable, very dignified [way]. I’m very grateful.” He declined further comment.
A tactical team was standing by, Schnell said. DOC crisis negotiators talked with the inmates, and all but two returned to their cells, Schnell said. The two who refused to return were taken to restrictive housing and will face discipline.
Schnell blamed inmates communicating with their families and activists for making too much of the situation.
“This is not the first time we’ve had people refuse to go back to their cells,” he said.
A small group of family and friends of inmates gathered outside the facility on Sunday, including Marvina Haynes, whose brother Marvin Haynes is incarcerated there for a 2005 murder conviction. Her brother told her that inmates have gone two days without showers and, when let out of their cells this morning, they refused to go back in. Phones were shut down just after 8 a.m., family members said, just as the lockdown began.
“The inmates don’t want to hurt or harm anyone, they just want clean water, showers and ice,” Haynes said.
She and other family members noted the facility is not air-conditioned, and said their family members have had limited access to water, showers and ice this weekend. Temperatures outside the prison hovered above 90 degrees.
Heat has always been a problem for the prison, Schnell said.
Cathy Stroud-Caldwell, whose son Lincoln is in prison for a 2008 murder conviction, said she’s been told water in the cells is rusty and prisoners have been straining it using their socks. “These are human beings,” she said.
Schnell said the water in the prison is safe to drink and was recently tested.
The head of the union representing staff and corrections officers at Stillwater, AFSCME Council 5, said in a statement that Sunday’s incident shows the consequences of understaffing.
The lack of staffing means prisoners’ movements are restricted, “leading to upset offenders” who have little or no access to programming and recreational time, said AFSCME Council 5 interim executive director Bart Andersen, in a statement.
The union claims correctional facilities “cannot have transformational offender programming without sufficient facility security.”
“Without more staffing in our correctional facilities … we will continue down this unacceptable road of staff assaults, offenders controlling sections of our prisons and more,” Andersen said.
Schnell said there are about 50 staff vacancies at Stillwater, and more than 300 across the entire DOC, or about 14% of all positions.
Built in 1914, the Stillwater state prison is the state’s largest close-security institution for men, according to its website. The prison houses about 1,500 inmates.
Dozens wept and embraced before releasing scores of balloons Saturday over north Minneapolis to remember two community pillars who were killed in a fiery car accident.
The crowd gathered near 26th and Emerson avenues to remember Esther Jean Fulks, 53, and Rose Elaine Reece, 57. They died on Dec. 16 when Teniki Latrice Elise Steward, 38, allegedly drove through a red light and struck their vehicle. A teen waiting at a nearby bus stop also was injured.
Fulks and Reese “gave their love and their hard work and dedication to the community. And as you can see, there’s people out here for them,” said Fulks’ daughter, D’Nia. “I’m going to miss my mom. That was my world, I was with her day in and day out. I was hoping to come home to my mom and it didn’t happen.”
“It means a lot,” Esther’s son, Joseph Loyd, said of neighbors attending the balloon release. “It shows what they contributed to the community and how much they meant to people. Not just their own families, but they touched countless other families and helped people.”
Emmary Thomas set a candle down at a bus stop during a balloon release Saturday for Esther Fulks and Rose Reece at 26th and Emerson avenues in north Minneapolis. Fulks and Reece died in a crash at the intersection on Dec. 16. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Flowers, balloons, candles and pictures sat at a bus stop during a balloon release Saturday for Esther Fulks and Rose Reece in north Minneapolis. Fulks and Reece died in a crash at the intersection on Dec. 16. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Drakarr Lobley hugged a supporter during Saturday’s balloon release for Esther Fulks and Rose Reece in north Minneapolis. Fulks and Reece died in a crash at the intersection on Dec. 16. Lobley is Reece’s son. (Ayrton Breckenridge/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Family and friends said Fulks and Reece were pillars of the community who treated strangers like family and brought love to those around them. Both had worked as navigators for the Minneapolis Cultural Wellness Center since 1998, connecting residents to food, clothing, shelter and other resources.
“They reminded us daily of the transformative power of service, love, and cultural connection,” Elder Atum Azzahir, executive director of the Cultural Wellness Center, said in a statement. “They were not just navigators — they were beacons of hope, guiding people toward brighter futures.”
At the crash scene Saturday, loved ones embraced while shedding tears and sharing memories. Anthony Hamilton’s “I Can’t Let Go” played as passing motorists shouted condolences and words of support. Caution tape strung to a traffic cone near the intersection fluttered in the wind.
Hit by headwinds including inflationary pressures, competition from e-commerce sites, big box retailers, pop-up stores and even a helium shortage, Party City is going out of business.
The closing of the nation’s largest party supply store, reported by CNN on Friday, is expected to shutter more than 700 retail stores in North America by the end of February, including 10 stores in Minnesota.
According to the company’s website, Party City has outlets in Apple Valley, Bloomington, Chanhassen, Coon Rapids, Maple Grove, Maplewood, Roseville, St. Cloud, St. Louis Park and Woodbury. Employees contacted at stores in Roseville, St. Cloud and Apple Valley said they had heard of the closing but could not comment.
Party City, which sells everything from balloons, costumes and birthday banners to gender reveal props and New Year’s Eve tiaras, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2023. That resulted in the cancellation of nearly $1 billion in debt.
The 38-year-old New Jersey-based company exited bankruptcy after naming a new CEO, Barry Litwin, in August. But the company was still contending with more than $800 million in debt, according to CNN. The New York Times reported the company employed more than 16,000 people.
A panel of independent health experts recommended this month against older adults using vitamin D and calcium supplements to prevent falls and fractures, citing inadequate evidence to support their effectiveness.
The guidance from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force underscores the risks of supplementation without prior testing and diagnosis for a vitamin D deficiency or for osteoporosis.
While vitamin D and calcium are important for bone health and muscle function, the task force, a blue-ribbon panel of experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine, said the supplements do little to reduce falls or fractures, and they may increase the risk of kidney stones.
The task force said the recommendation applies to people living at home, including women who have gone through menopause and men 60 years and older. It does not apply to people in assisted living or nursing homes because people living in those facilities may be more prone to health complications, including risk of falls.
Patients whose medical providers have suggested supplements as part of their clinical regimen are recommended to continue with that guidance.
The task force assigned a grade of D to the recommendation, indicating that it advises against use of the supplements because of moderate or high certainty that they provide no net benefit or that the harms outweigh the benefits — discouraging its use.
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among people 65 and older, a problem that increased steadily from 2012 to 2021. In 2020, health care spending related to falls in older adults that did not result in death was $80 billion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
John M. Ruiz, a task force member, said the answer to minimizing the risk of falling does not lie in vitamin supplementation. He said a review of research by the health experts found no dose of vitamin D with or without calcium was useful in preventing falls and fractures.
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