Bob Thompson, the city coordinator of Appleton, Minnesota, had a bright idea in the spring of 1990. Thompson, a thin man now in his seventies who has the polite reserve of a long-time Minnesotan, was looking for a way to replace the agriculture industry that had served as the rural town’s economic backbone for generations. After some research, it came to him: a prison.
I met with Thompson in Appleton. He told me about his failed attempts to lure a casino and furniture manufacturer to Appleton and how he eventually stumbled upon the idea of making his small town a site of incarceration.
“I had done a substantial amount of reading about what was going on with prisons in the United States, and there definitely was overpopulation of inmates and shortages of beds,” Thompson said, “I called a financial consultant for Appleton in Minneapolis, and I said, ‘Steve, I’ve got a project for you.’”
[For more on this story by LAUREN-BROOKE EISEN, go to https://www.themarshallproject...es-bust?ref=hp-2-111]
Photo: The Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minn., opened in 1992. MARK VANCLEAVE/MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE VIA ZUMA WIRE
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