The debate over a plan to lease and reopen a privately owned prison in Swift County quickly escalated into chaos Tuesday, leading legislators to temporarily clear the meeting room after dozens of protesters interrupted the proceeding.

A contentious Minnesota House hearing signaled an uncertain path ahead for the Prairie Correctional Facility proposal, highlighting strong opposition from some legislators and community members who say the state shouldn’t be doing business with Corrections Corporation of America, the prison’s controversial owner.

“CCA has a terrible reputation nationally for their treatment of prisoners,” said Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP. “Doing business with CCA is like doing business with the devil, because their practices are diabolical.”

Bill author Rep. Tim Miller, R-Prinsburg, emphasized that the Department of Corrections would run the prison under his proposal to lease the facility — not CCA.

“CCA isn’t going to be operating it,” he said. “Whether CCA has good or bad practices really isn’t an issue right now.”

After hours of passionate testimony, the bill ultimately passed its first test by a 10-7 vote in the House Public Safety Committee, advancing the proposal to Ways and Means.

Critics shut down hearing

Right now, Minnesota faces overcrowding in all of its state prisons, which has forced the state to house 2,400 overflow inmates in county jails since 2014 — a measure DOC officials acknowledge isn’t ideal, given the lack of treatment and programming at the jails. Miller said leasing Prairie Correctional would provide an immediate solution to overcrowding and buoy the region’s depressed economy.

“It is not an overstatement to say we are currently in a crisis,” Miller said. “It is beholden upon us to do something now.”

But Miller had barely dispatched with his opening remarks Tuesday when critics began standing up and shouting from their seats. Swift County residents and government officials attempted to give public testimony in support of the bill and its potential as a job creator, but their remarks were drowned out by loud scoffs from the crowd and more interruptions from critics speaking against the plan.

Legislators’ attempts to quiet the crowd only fueled more outbursts, drawing applause and shouts of “Amen” and “Black Lives Matter” from the audience. When lawmakers couldn’t get the crowd under control, they cleared the room.

The hearing resumed later in the morning, and about a dozen people testified against the bill. In addition to skepticism of CCA, many voiced concern over allowing the state’s correctional population to grow larger, pointing to disparities in the number of black people in Minnesota prisons compared to the state’s predominantly white population.

“This is just slavery by another name,” north Minneapolis resident Roxxanne O’Brien pointedly told legislators.

In a statement, Swift County Commissioner Gary Hendrickx called the vote a victory, urging Gov. Mark Dayton and legislators to keep the proposal on the table as an economic driver for the region and a way to ensure inmates get proper treatment and rehabilitative programming.

Levy-Pounds said she empathized with residents from Appleton and their poor economic situation, but said Appleton is a “small white rural town” and black Minnesotans also face high unemployment rates.

State prefers alternatives

DOC Commissioner Tom Roy also came out against the bill, telling lawmakers that reopening Prairie Correctional, which closed in 2010, is not in line with the department or Dayton’s plans.

He said the state can address overcrowding through other means, such as expanding early release programs, reforming sentencing guidelines for drug offenders and reexamining policies for offenders who violate supervised release or probation.

“The notion that we incarcerate people for profit — for corporate profit — I think is the antithesis of America,” Roy said.

Rep. Debra Hilstrom, DFL-Brooklyn Center, a longtime critic of Prairie Correctional, introduced an amendment that would ban contracts with private prisons, earning applause and catcalls from the crowd, but the committee members voted it down.

Joe Broge, a correctional officer at Stillwater prison, also testified at the hearing. He said DOC’s staff is too thin to take on another prison in a rural area, and he feared that leasing the prison now could pave the way for CCA running it down the road.

“They have an absolutely abysmal record,” Broge said. “You don’t want to allow them to get their foot in the door.”

Miller deflected the criticism, saying his bill wouldn’t allow CCA to take control without legislative action.

He also said he’d be open to a conversation about buying the prison and taking CCA out of the equation altogether, which some legislators have informally suggested.