Minnesota Agencies

By January 1, 2022, the group shall establish security audit standards for state correctional facilities. In developing the standards, the group, or individual members of the group, may gather information from state correctional facilities and state correctional staff and inmates. The security audit group must periodically review the standards and modify them as needed. The group must report the standards to the chairs and ranking minority members of the house of representatives and senate committees with jurisdiction over public safety policy and finance whenever the standards are updated. Beginning in 2023, the commissioner must include a written aggregate of the group's recommendations based on each security audit and assessment of a state correctional facility and the commissioner's responses to the recommendations in the biennial report required under section 241.016, subdivision 1.

A 2020 OLA program evaluation of safety in state correctional facilities recommended the Legislature "require that the Department of Corrections [DOC] regularly inspect state prisons according to defined security standards."

Their report included further details about this recommendation: "The Legislature, in consultation with DOC, should determine whether this recommendation is best addressed by: (1) requiring that DOC license and inspect its prisons, or (2) adding the security audit process to state law. A formal requirement that DOC regularly inspect its correctional facilities would prevent the department from either discontinuing regular security reviews or from falling behind its review schedule. The Legislature could also require more formal and consistent documentation from prison leaders regarding actions taken following reviews of the prisons’ security practices" (pg. 83).

In 2024 the Legislature made some changes to the composition of the group and to meeting and reporting requirements (see Laws of Minn. 2024, chap. 123, art. 8, sec. 3).

The group consists of the following members: a department of corrections employee who is not assigned to the correctional institutions division, appointed by the commissioner; the ombudsperson for corrections, or a designee; an elected sheriff or designee nominated by the Minnesota Sheriffs' Association and appointed by the commissioner; an individual with expertise in security related to infrastructure and operational logistics of correctional facilities who is not required to reside in Minnesota, appointed by the governor; the commissioner of health or a designee; the commissioner of administration or a designee; two senators, one appointed by the senate majority leader and one appointed by the minority leader; and two representatives, one appointed by the speaker of the house and one appointed by the minority leader of the house of representatives.

The ombudsperson or a designee shall chair the group.