Star Tribune
Lead found in three taps at Lino Lakes prison, DOC outlines water management plan
The state’s Department of Corrections has detected lead in water from three of 10 faucets at Lino Lakes prison, and now says it will develop a comprehensive water management plan for its facilities.
Staff and incarcerated people at Lino Lakes were informed Tuesday of the lead amounts, which exceeded the EPA’s action level of 15 parts of lead per billion, according to a DOC news release.
The three faucets are in bathrooms in programming buildings. Those faucets have been “secured” and are not in living areas or staff break areas, the DOC said in the release.
The lead amounts were “below the level that would indicate an immediate health concern,” the DOC said. The department is providing bottled water to inmates and staff at the prison while more comprehensive testing takes place.
The department said this was routine testing at Lino Lakes, separate from the additional water tests requested for Stillwater prison following a protest by inmates objecting to conditions that included murky drinking water.
On Sept. 3, more than 100 Stillwater inmates protested over conditions, including lack of air conditioning and poor water quality. The protesters were also upset that during Labor Day weekend they had little time outside their cells to shower, call their families and socialize, which the DOC said was due to staffing shortages.
A week later the DOC ordered additional water testing. Sediment in the facility’s well water can at times affect the clarity and give it a reddish-brown tint, DOC spokesman Andy Skoogman said earlier this month.
Preliminary results of the water testing have shown no immediate risk with the drinking water, the DOC said.
Minnesota Department of Health staff collected water from 81 tap sites, which included living units, kitchen, programming areas and staff areas according to the DOC. A report on the water quality is expected to be submitted later this week.
DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell said he has directed the department to develop and implement comprehensive water testing protocol within 45 days.
Schnell said aging infrastructure is a challenge “across the state,” and that investments are needed to address it.
He also listed three steps the department will take, including:
- Hiring a contractor within four weeks to develop a water management plan at each facility.
- Publicly posting the Department of Health’s consumer confidence reports for water quality for facilities on the DOC’s website by the end of Wednesday.
- Hiring an industrial hygienist to focus on water and other environmental health concerns.
A driver who hit and killed a man who ran into a busy Minneapolis street has been spared prison and was sentenced on the lesser of two charges.
Camoreay L. Prowell, 38, of St. Paul, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in Hennepin County District Court to failing to stop for a traffic collision in connection with the death of Wilson G. Chinchilla, 26, of Minneapolis, on Oct. 19, 2022, on West Broadway near N. Logan Avenue.
Judge Hilary Caligiuri set aside a 13-month term and placed Prowell on probation for three years. He has about 3½ weeks left to serve in jail. As called for in the plea agreement, the more serious charge of criminal vehicular homicide was dismissed.
When asked about dropping the higher charge, the County Attorney’s Office said in a statement, “This office weighs the specific facts of each case to determine the appropriate resolution. In this instance, the charge for which Mr. Prowell was sentenced [Thursday] is correct and appropriate.”
The complaint said that Prowell was driving at the time after his license had been canceled. Court records in Minnesota revealed he’s been convicted three times for drunken driving and at least twice for driving after his license had been revoked.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police found Chinchilla’s body in the left lane of westbound West Broadway. Video surveillance showed that he ran out of a nearby home moments earlier toward the street.
Witnesses told police that a speeding SUV hit Chinchilla, slowed briefly as it continued west, then made a U-turn and returned to the scene of the crash. Prowell stopped, looked at the body and left.
Mychel Stowers was released on parole from prison about seven months ago after he pleaded guilty to second-degree intentional murder in 2008 for fatally shooting a man in a drug deal gone wrong. According to charging documents, Stowers was living at a halfway house and granted a pass to visit his ex-wife at her North End apartment on the same day that she was killed.
Mychel Stowers’ description also matched the man witnesses saw fleeing Damara Stowers’ apartment moments after the shooting. One witness said they heard no fights or arguments before four gunshots rang. They heard another gunshot five seconds later, and another witness reported seeing a heavyset man with a white shirt and blue shorts run south afterwards.
The apartment’s owner said they were preparing to evict Damara Stowers, adding that her ex-boyfriend, a stocky man in his 30′s or 40′s, was living with her.
Police heard reports of a carjacking minutes later, finding a man shot in his leg on 99 Acker Street. Surveillance footage reviewed by authorities show someone approach that man and point something at him before a flash appeared. The man fell and the shooter ran away, but returned moments later to take the man’s vehicle and leave. That man was treated at Regions Hospital for a broken femur from a gunshot wound.
Authorities believe the gun used to carjack that man on Acker Street was the same used to kill Damara Stowers in her apartment.
There have been 25 homicides in St. Paul so far this year, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune database. There were 28 by this time last year.
The Minneapolis Police Department is on track to rack up $26 million in overtime this year — about $10 million over budget — as the number of extra hours officers work continues since a flood of officers left the force after George Floyd’s 2020 police killing and unrest that ensued.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara provided the OT figure to City Council members during a budget presentation Thursday in which he added that the department has about 210 vacancies.
“We’re using overtime every day to do the most basic functions of a police department,” he said. “It is critically low staffing right now.”
Last year, MPD paid nearly $23 million in overtime — about half of that “critical staffing overtime,” in which officers are paid double their hourly wage.
Overtime is being driven by a wave of resignations and retirements at the department, which had 578 sworn officers as of Thursday, down from nearly 900 in 2019, a 36% decrease that has left it with one of the nation’s lowest ratios of officers to residents.
MPD was averaging about $7 million in overtime prior to 2020, when it shot up to $11 million and has increased every year since, reaching $23 million last year.
Mayor Jacob Frey has proposed a $230 million budget for MPD next year, a 6% increase from 2024, or $13.7 million. Of that, $13 million is budgeted for “constitutional policing” to comply with a state human rights settlement. State and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring for civil rights violations.
Most of that goes to personnel, which comprises 77% of the budget, according to MPD Finance Director Vicki Troswick. The mayor proposes 966 full-time total MPD employees next year, compared to 935 this year. Of those, 731 sworn officers are budgeted for 2025. The city charter requires the city to employ 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, or 731 officers, although the city has struggling to reach that number amid a nationwide law enforcement staffing shortage.
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