Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, ca. 1900.

Measuring a prisoner's head

Measuring a prisoner's head

Measuring a prisoner's head (possibly at Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater), ca. 1900.

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, 1886.

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, ca. 1895. Photo by Briol Studio.

Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater

Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater, Minnesota’s oldest prison, was built in Stillwater as the Territorial Prison in 1853. It moved to a location in what is now Bayport between 1910 and 1914. MCF-Stillwater has been the site of multiple rebellions and also publishes the Prison Mirror, likely the oldest continuously operated prisoner newspaper in the US.

Inmate Publications at State Institutions

At the end of the nineteenth century, inmates at the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater began publishing a newsletter written and edited by fellow prisoners. For the first time in US history, inmates at a state institution created a regular periodical that was fully their own at every level of production. They used it to discuss news, share their literary and artistic works, and organize for institutional change. Called the Prison Mirror, the newsletter served as a model for similar publications produced by inmates at nearly all of Minnesota’s state hospitals, correctional facilities, and state schools.

Cover of the Prison Mirror

Cover of the Prison Mirror

The cover of the February 2010 issue of the Prison Mirror, the longest-running prisoners’ publication in the United States. Available on microfilm at the Minnesota Historical Society library as “Stillwater. PRISON MIRROR.”

Image for the hundred-year-anniversary edition of the Prison Mirror

Image for the hundred-year-anniversary edition of the Prison Mirror

An image celebrating one hundred years of the Prison Mirror, the longest-running prisoners’ publication in the United States, published in the August 1987 issue. Available on microfilm at the Minnesota Historical Society library as “Stillwater. PRISON MIRROR.”

Image for the hundred-year-anniversary edition of the Prison Mirror

Image for the hundred-year-anniversary edition of the Prison Mirror

An image celebrating one hundred years of the Prison Mirror, the longest-running prisoners’ publication in the United States, published in the August 1987 issue. Available on microfilm at the Minnesota Historical Society library as “Stillwater. PRISON MIRROR.”

Poem published in Winged’ition

Poem published in Winged’ition

A poem written by Mark Hoover and published in a 1971 issue of Winged’ition, a publication made by inmates at the Minnesota Training School for Boys in Red Wing. Minnesota State Training School for Boys published records, 1919–1999 (box 111.K.11.2F). State Archives, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

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