Judge denies Corrections Department request to return prisoners released amid COVID's onset

A Ramsey County judge this week denied the state Department of Corrections' (DOC) request to return to prison several people previously released out of COVID-19 precautions.

In his order denying the state's request to dissolve an August temporary restraining order in the case, Judge Mark Ireland wrote that the Corrections Department was "not free to arbitrarily end" someone's involvement in its conditional medical release program.

"From a public interest and public policy perspective, taxpayers should not pay to incarcerate individuals who were deemed by the Commissioner to pose no threat to the public when initially granted CMR and have and are now abiding by their supervised release conditions, not committing any new crimes, and do not otherwise present a more serious risk to the public," Ireland wrote.

Ireland added that even though state law may allow revoking conditional release without a hearing, "there is also an argument as to whether the statute is unconstitutional and a hearing is, in fact, required."

A hearing on the broader case is scheduled for March. A spokesperson for the Corrections Department said Wednesday, "We have received the order and are reviewing it."

Earlier in the pandemic, the Corrections Department freed 158 people from prison under conditional medical release after deeming them vulnerable to serious complications if they contracted COVID during prison. Some 2,300 prisoners had applied.

In August, the state ordered 19 people still on release to surrender themselves. But Ireland granted an emergency restraining order, saying at the time that the Corrections Department plan would force people back into prison "regardless of their individual health risks — which could be significant and even fatal."

The state then conducted individual determinations for the 19 people still on release. In October, Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell sent letters to three people still on release to inform them that he planned to order them back to prison. But Ireland's order barred the state from following through. A fourth person was being considered for a court hearing to determine whether they violated their release terms, and the status of another person on conditional release was delayed pending a medical procedure.

JaneAnne Murray, director of the University of Minnesota Law School Clemency Project and an attorney representing some of the inmates on release, said that they were "delighted that they can safely spend the holidays at home with their families."

"We hope that the DOC revisits its decision to return them at all," Murray said. "They have thrived on release — working and furthering their education. We cannot see how public safety is served by their return."

Only one of the plaintiffs named as suing the state, Tanya Mae Wagner, is still challenging the DOC's plans to return her to prison. Wagner was released because she gave birth last year, and Schnell now wants to move her to a postpartum temporary release program. Dale Allen Jones was the other plaintiff named in the suit, but the Corrections Department is not seeking his return to prison.