A federal lawsuit filed Monday argues that the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) violated the First Amendment when it abruptly canceled a Christian rehab program.
The voluntary program, called “Quest for Authentic Manhood,” was available to inmates at the Minnesota Correctional Facility–St. Cloud thanks to Anthony Schmitt, who taught the program over the course of a decade until it was canceled in 2023.
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Under a settlement reached this week, the Minnesota Department of Corrections has agreed to transfer a biological male inmate who identifies as a woman to an all-female facility and will allow him to pursue a vaginoplasty procedure.
Left-wing legal group Gender Justice announced the settlement agreement Thursday, saying its client Christina Lusk will also receive $495,000 in monetary compensation, about half of which will go towards legal fees.
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After serving 16 months behind bars, online records show Kim Potter is scheduled to be released from prison on Monday. However, the Department of Corrections says the time “has yet to be established.”
The former Brooklyn Center police officer was convicted in December 2021 of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daunte Wright. Potter accidentally grabbed her gun instead of her Taser on a traffic stop where Wright tried to flee.
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The Minnesota Department of Corrections will now pay for any inmate’s abortion, regardless of the reasons for seeking the procedure, according to a new policy.
The new policy, adopted January 10, replaces a 2018 policy that limited the department’s coverage of abortion to cases where the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest or if the life of the mother was at risk.
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Protesters continue to occupy the street in front of a Stillwater, Minnesota, prosecutor’s home, over a week after their demonstrations against the attorney first grabbed headlines.
Pete Orput has served as the Washington County attorney for over a decade. He recently chose to pursue a manslaughter charge, as opposed to murder, in the case of Kim Potter, a former Brooklyn Center police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright earlier this month. Since Orput charged Potter, he has been subject to public vitriol leveled against him by protesters who disagree with his decision.
Livestreams of Monday’s demonstration show that BLM-affiliated individuals totally obstructed the street in front of Orput’s home with vehicles and even set up chairs, a podium and a sound truck in the roadway.
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Citing financial woes The Minnesota Department of Corrections (MNDOC) will be closing two prisons.
Prisoners from the Togo and Willow River prisons will be transferred to other facilities and 100 employees will be laid off as a result of the move. These cuts come only a few weeks after 48 Department of Corrections Employees were let go in response to budget concerns resulting from the coronavirus.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota has asked the state government to “aggressively” limit arrests to “the most serious offenses” during the coronavirus pandemic.
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