Coronavirus COVID-19 is fastly spreading throughout the United States, inmates are dying at alarming rates within our prison system. The fight is already underway at a Moose Lake facility here in Minnesota. 

The minimum security inmates live 200 people in a dormitory style quarters, they eat together and sleep in one large room together. This makes for isolation and staying 6 feet apart impossible. These inmates are trusted in our society and work jobs in our communities, in such places as Edina, Eden Prairie, Plymouth and Woodbury. They work in parks and community centers where children play. These inmates are not a threat to the public. Minimum security inmates are already living with no fences or security, and with ankle monitoring bracelets, they are almost free... let them come home! 

Under Minn. Statue 244.065 states that inmates are eligible for work release once they have served 2/3 of their sentence. These people have served 2/3 of their time. Department of Corrections has a policy in place that forces inmates to stay longer, this would just take for the Department of Corrections to change their internal policy, a law through the legislature would not be needed. 

Follow Illinois in the effort to release, minimum security low level offenders, elderly, disabled and medically frail inmates from state prisons before they may be affected by the new virus. 

Please do not use them to help with the pandemic and make hand santizer like New York or have them help bury our dead like New Jersey. These people have human rights and deserve to be treated as humans. 

Please release the minimum security facility inmates in Minnesota. Overcrowding in our prisons have been a problem for many years, now is the time to lower the incarceration rate and also help inmates have a chance at surviving when this outbreak gets worse.