Prairie Correctional Facility

The Prairie Correctional Facility is a vacant, 1,600-bed private prison located in Appleton, Minnesota.

Prairie was built by the city of Appleton and first opened, empty, in 1992. In March 1993 the city reached an agreement with the Puerto Rico Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to fill all 516 beds. The prison had been built by the city and was sitting empty. Through the years the prison was expanded twice, housed prisoners from Colorado, Idaho, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Washington, and Minnesota, and was a significant local employer.

Corrections Corporation of America bought the facility in 1997, and closed the prison in 2010 following declining demand for the facility by the State of Minnesota, which had recently constructed four new 416-bed housing units at Minnesota Correctional Facility – Faribault and added 250 new beds to Minnesota Correctional Facility – Moose Lake.

The Prairie Correctional Facility is the only privately-owned prison in the state of Minnesota.

In 2023, HF1200 was introduced to the Minnesota Legislature, which would ban the Department of Corrections from housing prisoners in privately-owned prisons. Supporters of the bill state that the Prairie Correctional Facility is too far from a major hospital and the Twin Cities, where many of the inmates families would be visiting from. Opponents to the bill state that opening the Prairie Correctional Facility would provide jobs to Swift County and reduce overcrowding in Minnesota prisons.