Minnesota Correctional Facility - Oak Park Heights
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| Location | Oak Park Heights, Minnesota |
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| Coordinates | 45°01′30″N 92°48′11″W / 45.025°N 92.803°W |
| Status | Operational |
| Security class | Level 5 "Maximum" |
| Capacity | 482 |
| Population | 459 (as of March 21, 2015) |
| Opened | 1982 |
| Managed by | Minnesota Department of Corrections |
| Director | Michelle Smith, Warden |
Minnesota Correctional Facility – Oak Park Heights (MCF-OPH) is Minnesota’s only Level Five maximum security prison. The facility is located near the cities of Bayport and Stillwater. The facility is designed and employed with trained security officers to handle not only Minnesota’s high risk inmates but other states' as well. They also have the largest contract to house federal inmates with serious, violent histories. This contract has brought the state millions of dollars over the years. Oak Park Heights is considered to be one of the safest prisons in the United States. The prison has never had an escape, and only one homicide.
Frank Wood was the warden of Stillwater prison when he helped come up with the plan for Oak Park Heights in 1982. He was also the first warden of the prison from 1982 until 1996 when he retired. His deputy James Bruton became the warden from 1996 until 2001. Constructed in 1981 and opened in 1982 at a cost of $31.5 million, Oak Park Heights is home to approximately 481 offenders. According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections, the prison's nine complexes are “specialized uniquely to help facilitate a safe, secure, and humane environment for the offenders incarcerated as well as the staff who work at Oak Park Heights”.
Constructed in 1981, MCF-OPH is the state's only Level Five (Maximum) Custody Level prison for men, with an inmate population just under 450. The facility is home to some of the state's most violent offenders, as well as many out-of-state commits and a few federal inmates.
The prison is architecturally designed into the side of a hill to accommodate 481 offenders on a 160-acre (0.65 km2) site, which is connected by two corridors on separate levels. One of the Corridors is used only for the staff, while the other corridor is used primarily for offenders and staff traffic, while the other 60 acres of this site are securely fenced in, with a large courtyard and baseball field in the center. Inmate cells measure seven by ten feet. Each cell contains a bed, table, toilet, and sink. The bed is a cement slab topped by a thin mattress. The toilet and sink are made of steel so they can’t be broken. Each cell also has one rectangular window that’s tall and thin. It is too narrow to escape through if the inmate could break the reinforced glass, and tests have proven it would take approximately twelve thousand hacksaw blades to cut through the steel bars of the prison. Not only does the prison provide a courtyard with a baseball field, but also includes an administration building, a religious resource room, gymnasium, security control center, staffed training fitness area, warehouses, a loading dock, and indoor firing range.
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