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Duluth News
MPR News Staff
Updated:

Federal Bureau of Prisons plans to ‘deactivate’ facility in Duluth

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The Federal Bureau of Prisons on Thursday announced it plans to “deactivate” several of its facilities across the country, including the federal prison camp in Duluth.

“FPC Duluth has an aging and dilapidated infrastructure, including several condemned buildings that have contaminants such as asbestos and lead paint,” federal prison officials said in the announcement. The agency also informed Congress of its plans.

The Duluth Federal Prison Camp is a minimum-security facility located near the Duluth International Airport. The move to suspend operations — short of a permanent closure — will affect more than 700 inmates currently housed there, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. They’ll be moved to other federal facilities.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said most of the 89 employees currently working at the prison camp will be offered positions at the federal prison in Sandstone, about 70 miles away.

In addition to aging buildings and budgetary concerns, the agency said the moves announced Thursday are aimed at addressing longstanding staffing shortages.

“The FBOP is not downsizing and we are committed to finding positions for every employee who wants to remain with the agency,” the agency said in its announcement. “The movement of these employees will positively impact our staffing levels at several institutions and mitigate mandatory overtime and augmentation which will help alleviate the exhaustion our employees feel.”

The move to close or suspend operations at more than a half-dozen facilities around the country drew criticism from a union representing federal employees.

“This announcement jeopardizes the continued employment of 400 federal employees just weeks before the holidays. While the agency says it will attempt to place employees in other jobs, the reality is that most Bureau of Prisons facilities are in isolated locations far from each other, so many if not most employees affected will face disruptive relocations to remain employed,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement.

Kelley said the “likely loss of so many skilled and dedicated workers will exacerbate the existing staffing crisis within the Bureau of Prisons.”