While state officials said the move to close the facility addresses longstanding concerns of safety with the prison’s conditions and saves the state more than $40 million annually, union leaders

Labor leaders at the state’s second-largest prison said they were not consulted on the plan to shut it down. They argued at the Capitol that this will harm public safety and corrections operations throughout Minnesota.

The facility houses 1,100 inmates and employs roughly 560 people, but the operational costs of the 111-year-old building have become "untenable," Gov. Tim Walz said.