COVID-19 public safety and corrections policy bill advances

With more than 100 prisoners and staff statewide having tested positive for COVID-19, safety was front and center as the House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Division met Thursday.

State prisons are “confined areas that are rife for possible infectious expansion,” said Rep. Carlos Mariani (DFL-St. Paul). He chairs the division and sponsors a public safety and corrections policy bill that would address COVID-19 issues faced by the Department of Corrections.

HF3156, amended by a delete-all amendment, would give the department the emergency authority it needs to keep inmates safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. That, in turn, keeps law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and other workers who interact with this population, as safe as possible, too, Mariani noted.

Four other amendments (A2, A3, A6, A9) were added before a 10-7 party-line vote sent the bill to the House Ways and Means committee. There is no Senate companion.

To ease overcrowding in state prisons, the Corrections Department could release inmates if they:

• are deemed to be at low-risk to reoffend upon release;
• are serving terms for non-violent offenses; and
• have 180 days or less in their terms.

At an April 6 hearing, Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell noted that when making a decision on inmate release, the public’s safety would be his No. 1 concern, adding that all decisions would be made in consultation with department staff who have expertise in public safety risk assessment.

Corrections Ombudsperson Mark Haase said, as of Wednesday, 79 of 334 inmates checked for COVID-19 tested positive: 45 at the Willow River facility, 33 at Moose Lake facility and one is in the Lino Lakes facility. Thirty-nine prison staff have tested positive.

A provision in bill would repeal current law that encourages the commissioner to double bunk inmates as much as possible in all but the state’s maximum security prison.

That provision would hamper the commissioner’s ability to make independent decisions on where and how to house prisoners, said Rep. Marion O'Neill (R-Maple Lake). She cited that provision as a reason why she would vote against the bill.

Other provisions, several amendments

To keep first responders, including law enforcement officers, firefighters, and domestic abuse and victim advocates, as safe as possible while performing their duties, the bill would require health care providers who test first responders for COVID-19 to return test results to them as soon as possible.

The bill would also:

• require the corrections commissioner and sheriffs to post daily inmate population numbers for prisons, jails, and juvenile detention centers on publicly accessible websites administered by the agencies; and
• require the commissioner to report to the Legislature within 180 days of the expiration of the peacetime COVID-19 emergency any emergency powers that were exercised, when the powers were exercised, and an explanation for why the powers were necessary.

The A6 amendment, successfully offered by Rep. Jack Considine Jr. (DFL-Mankato), added language that specifically states which types of violent offenders would not be eligible for early release to reduce prison crowding.

It also eliminated a provision that would have directed the department to grant inmates free external phone calls and video conferences if visitors to prisons are prohibited because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Successfully offered by Rep. John Lesch (DFL-St. Paul), the A3 amendment would end driver’s license suspensions for unpaid traffic tickets unless the offender had more than four tickets in one year.

“There would be no change to driver’s license suspensions for dangerous driving violations,” Lesch said.

He said one impetus of these proposed changes is to permit more personal vehicles to be used for essential travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, which achieves a level of social distancing that is impossible with public transit or car-pooling.

A provision in the bill, reduced by the A9 amendment offered by Rep. John Poston (R-Lake Shore), would eliminate the local match requirement for youth intervention programs grants made by the Department of Public Safety in fiscal year 2020. This would help those programs to continue to operate if they were negatively affected by Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order issue in March.