Happy Independence Day

 

Freeborn County Sheriff suing Minnesota

 KAALTV is reporting that 

(ABC 6 News) — Freeborn County Sheriff Ryan Shea announced he is taking legal action against the State of Minnesota to prevent a new law from going into effect on July 1.

According to a letter posted to the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page, the legal action pertains to a new law that would require Minnesota jails to continue to administer the same prescription medication prescribed to inmates that were prescribed prior to their confinement.

The new law, according to Sheriff Shea, could be “harmful” and bring with it “potentially deadly consequences.”

Sheriff Shea said the Freeborn County Adult Detention Center contracts with Advanced Correctional Healthcare to provide medical care at the jail, and the law “takes away their ability to practice medicine using their training, experience, education, and expertise.”

Sheriff Shea expressed further concern that medical professionals at the jail may not always be able to get ahold of health care professionals who prescribed the medication to get permission to possibly take inmates off the prescriptions.

Sheriff Shea said there are many times where individuals come to the jail with prescriptions that they have not taken for weeks, potentially counteract with street drugs they have taken, improperly obtained prescriptions, or prescriptions that are no longer appropriate for their mental health state.

As a result, Sheriff Shea stated that restarting these medications at the beginning of their confinement could cause adverse health effects, putting ACH, Freeborn County, and the FCSO at risk for civil lawsuits.

Sheriff Shea also stated these prescriptions would come at the cost of taxpayer dollars since it is an unfunded mandate by the state.

The legal action calls for a temporary restraining order and injunction to prevent 2025 session chapter 35, article 5, section 7 from going into effect.

Happy Memorial Day

 

Remember the Fallen

Jelly Roll visits the Hennepin County Jail

Musician Jelly Roll visited the Hennepin County jail while he was in town the other day.

Photo's from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office Facebook page.

CO Union opposes Stillwater closing

 

Stillwater Prison Closing!

The Minnesota Department of Corrections has announced they are closing Stillwater Prison. They cite economic, health and safety reasons.

They do not intend to build a new prison but to spread the inmates to the State's other 9 facilities. They also expect to reduce staff, however it should be pointed out that there is already a severe shortage of Corrections Officers in Minnesota and overcrowding in most prisons and jails.

Short staffing is already a major safety issue for staff and inmates.

As a retired Detention Deputy from Hennepin County I remember a time that the State had an overcrowding situation and dumped inmates near the end of their sentences into County Jails. This created a logistical nightmare of keeping convicted inmates separated from pre-trial inmates and the angry State inmates who didn't have the programs they were accustomed to in prison. The State also paid a very low daily rate to the County to house their inmates pushing the cost onto the County taxpayers.

Let's hope the State doesn't do that again, but I doubt they thought that far ahead.

Full Story KSTP

Judge STRIPS NYC of Control Over Rikers Island

 Gateway Pundit is reporting : Judge STRIPS NYC of Control Over Rikers Island.

A federal judge has stripped the city of control over its notorious Rikers Island jail complex, citing “unprecedented” levels of violence, systemic mismanagement, and a blatant disregard for court orders.

In a scathing 77-page ruling released Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain officially stripped New York City and its Department of Correction (DOC) of full control over Rikers Island, citing a decade of failure to protect inmates from “grave and immediate” harm, including unconstitutional levels of violence, abuse, and systemic mismanagement.

The ruling, issued in the landmark Nunez v. City of New York case, appoints an independent “Nunez Remediation Manager” to take control over key safety and use-of-force functions at Rikers.

FULL STORY