According to this Savage Pacer article, the Governor is attempting to gain nearly $5.5 million in funding for a new fence at the Shakopee Women’s Prison. While the hedgerow that is currently separating inmates from residents has been surprisingly effective at stopping escapes, residents want a wrought iron design so that it looks good in their neighborhood, something which raises the potential price and limits the likelihood it will be approved in the bonding bill yet again.

From the article:

Politics in Minnesota is reporting that Gov. Mark Dayton has included $5.2 million for a security fence at the Shakopee women’s prison in his bonding bill proposal released Monday morning.

Like his predecessor Tim Pawlenty, Dayton has tried before to obtain funding for the controversial prison fence.
Although a top priority for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, it was ultimately left out of the final legislation that passed the Legislature, judged by some lawmakers as too expensive.

The fence’s estimated $5.4 million price tag is hefty due to the secondary interior invisible detection system, as well as the brick and wrought-iron design preferred by neighbors, some of which would prefer not to see a fence at all.

Shakopee’s Women’s Prison houses all five levels of inmates from minimum up through maximum security offenders. With a wide range of prisoners being housed there, one would think that neighboring residents would want the best barriers available regardless of their aesthetics. If the costs would come down with a less visually appealing fence but would offer the same or better protections, it’s surprising that the battle continues.

What about you? If you lived near a prison would you prefer looks over potential safety especially knowing that all 5 levels of offenders were housed within? Do you think that compared to the other items on the countless bonding bills passed over the years that a $5.5 million prison fence should be included over some others? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

According to this Dakota County Criminal Complaint, an Eagan nurse was charged with stalking/harassment and terroristic threats after she was recorded telling another individual that she was injecting her husband with insulin stolen from the hospital where she worked, feeding him Ambien-laced smoothies, and attempting to smother him repeatedly because she was unhappy with her marriage. Her attempts were failing and she was frustrated and seemed to be asking for help in committing murder.

From the article:

On March 20, 2013 at about 7:00 P.M. Eagan officers were dispatched to a residential address in the City of Eagan regarding a report of information about some type of domestic case. Upon arrival at the residence, the officers talked to an adult female. The woman told the officers that she was a nurse at a Twin Cities hospital, and that she had a friend by the name of Amy Losie who was also a nurse at the hospital. This witness stated that she had received a call from Losie earlier that day at about 2:30 P.M. The witness stated that Losie seemed frantic and asked her if her phone was “bugged.” The witness said that Losie began talking about her husband and asked the witness, “how do you give somebody 60 units and then 80 units of insulin and they don’t die?” The witness said that Losie continued and said that she recently had been waking her husband from one of his drug-induced states, when he was passed out, and tried to give her husband a smoothie in which she had blended 15 Ambien pills. (Your complainant knows that Ambien is a prescription sleep medication). Losie told her friend that her husband did not like the taste of the smoothie, and did not finish drinking it. Losie also told the witness that on another occasion she had tried to put a pillow over her husband’s face. Losie told her friend that, “he just keeps coming back.” Losie also stated that she had been thinking about this for a long time, but has been really thinking about it hard for the past three weeks. The witness told Losie that someone would be able to tell that her husband died from an insulin overdose, but Losie told her that they would not find the insulin and would just think that he overdosed on his medications. The witness told the officers that she believed that Losie actually meant to harm her husband. She added that Losie would be able to steal small amounts of insulin from the hospital where they both worked and it would go unnoticed.

After the woman was arrested, her husband admitted to using Oxycontin often to deal with the pain from a number of slipped discs in his back but stated he did not believe his wife could harm him. A bruise was found on his stomach but the husband believed it occurred during a recent move to a new residence.

This story was in the news a bit recently likely because it’s absolutely crazy. A few questions come to mind: is she mentally stable? Did she really do this or was she making it all up to get attention? Why is her husband so very stoned on Oxycontin for slipped discs in his back? Why was she only charged with stalking/harassment and terroristic threats instead of attempted murder? Will either of those stick any better than the attempted murder charge? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear what you have to say about the sick and twisted people we have South of the River.