DULUTH – Duluth’s federal prison camp employees learned today the facility will stay open, following months of uncertainty after a December announcement that it would close.
The new federal prison director toured the facility last week, said Tonya Gajeski, president of a union representing federal employees there.
She said the visit went well, and director William Marshall told a regional director today it would remain operational.
“The staff here are just really, really relieved; that’s a long time to live in limbo,” Gajeski said, noting employees are thankful to U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith for their advocacy.
She said a handful of the 90 employees have left in the interim, and more than 450 prisoners have been transferred. About 275 remain, but Gajeski expects a return of prisoners to the 800-capacity complex.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons said in the final month of President Joe Biden’s administration that the minimum-security Duluth facility was among seven across the country to be deactivated, which is just short of permanently closed. The December decision would have meant transferring about 700 inmates and displacing the federal workers, some to a prison facility in Sandstone, Minn., an hour southwest of Duluth.
The all-male Duluth prison camp has been located on a former U.S. Air Force base for more than 40 years. It was cited by the Bureau of Prisons as having “aging and dilapidated infrastructure,” including several condemned buildings contaminated with asbestos and lead paint.
Gajeski has said its condition is better than what’s been portrayed and its facilities department has inmates learning plumbing and electrical skills who work to make quick repairs.
