Minnesota Correctional Facility – St. Cloud (MCF-St. Cloud) is a state

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

St. Cloud, Minnesota St. Cloud or Saint Cloud (; ) is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 68,881 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's 12th-largest city. St. Cloud is the c ...

, United States. Established in 1889 as the Minnesota State Reformatory for Men, it is a level four, close-security institution with an inmate population of about 1,000 men. MCF-St. Cloud serves as the intake facility for men committed to prison in Minnesota. The Minnesota State Reformatory for Men Historic District was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1986 for its state-level significance in the themes of architecture and social history. The listing comprises 23

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

built 1887–1933 with granite quarried by inmates. The prison was nominated for its architectural cohesion and for its associations with

prison reform Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of a penal system, reduce recidivism or implement alternatives to incarceration. It also focuses on ensuring the reinstatement of those whose lives are ...

and Minnesota's quarrying industry. With

History

The prison, originally named the Minnesota State Reformatory for Men, was Minnesota's third prison. The

Minnesota Territorial Prison The Minnesota Territorial Prison, later the Minnesota State Prison, was a prison in Stillwater, Minnesota, United States, in operation from 1853 to 1914. Construction of the prison began in 1851, shortly after Minnesota became a territory. The p ...

was established in Stillwater in 1853. In 1867, a second institution, the House of Refuge, opened in

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

to house young offenders. The House of Refuge was renamed to the Minnesota State Reform School in 1879, and it moved to Red Wing in 1890. Later, in 1895, it was renamed the

Minnesota State Training School Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The State Reformatory for Men was intended as an intermediate facility between the State Training School and the Territorial Prison. It was created as a

reformatory A reformatory or reformatory school is a youth detention center or an adult correctional facility popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Western countries. In the United Kingdom and United States, they came out of social concern ...

for offenders between sixteen and thirty years old who were presumed salvageable from a life of crime. The first cell block, a four-story

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

structure designed by J. Walter Stevens, was completed in 1889. A second cell block, also designed by Stevens, was built by

inmates A prisoner, also known as an inmate or detainee, is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement or captivity in a prison or physical restraint. The term usually applies to one serving a Sentence (law), se ...

who quarried

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

from an on-site

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

. In 1897, work was started on the Romanesque/Medieval-style Administration Building. The building was designed by Clarence H. Johnston Sr., who designed several other structures for state institutions. Due to several work stoppages, the Administration Building was not completed until 1920. The building, five stories tall, is built of granite and has a flat roof with octagonal corner towers. The wall was built by prisoners brought over from the Stillwater prison and remains the second largest wall built by prisoners. The quarry that the stone came from is the oldest granite quarry in Minnesota. Johnston designed other buildings at the Reformatory, including other cell blocks, the north and south dining halls, infirmary, power plant building, maintenance shops, guard towers, and some school and trade buildings. The most imposing structure is the perimeter wall, a high granite wall on the outside perimeter. Historian Denis Gardner writes, " he granite barrierall but shouted to those on the outside to be good citizens or else." License plate stamping was done here for many years until 2008 in which license plates were no longer stamped but printed and that process was brought to another prison. During the first decades the prison was built, upon release, it was standard to issue you a horse, saddle, rifle, and a gold piece.

Notable inmates

*Nicholas Firkus *

CeCe McDonald CeCe McDonald (; born May 26, 1989) is an American trans woman, convicted killer, and LGBTQ activist who came to national attention in June 2012 after pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter. Originally charged with murder for the stabbing ...

, trans woman convicted of second degree manslaughter * Jerry Westromhttps://www.fox9.com/news/mpls-cold-case-murder-supreme-court-vacates-conviction-but-suspect-will-stay-in-prison

References

External links

Minnesota Correctional Facility - St. Cloud
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota Correctional Facility - St. Cloud 1889 establishments in Minnesota Buildings and structures in St. Cloud, Minnesota Buildings and structures in Sherburne County, Minnesota Government buildings completed in 1889 Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Buildings and structures completed in 1889 National Register of Historic Places in Sherburne County, Minnesota St. Cloud Prisons on the National Register of Historic Places Romanesque Revival architecture in Minnesota Tudor Revival architecture in Minnesota

History

Notable inmates

See also

References

External links