The Minnesota maximum security prison where Derek Chauvin will spend the next two months in a ‘Super Seg’ single prison cell houses some of the state’s most notorious criminals and has a reputation for being one of the most secure in the country given no inmates have ever been able to escape.
Chauvin, 45, was immediately taken to the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Oak Park Heights on Tuesday and was placed on suicide watch after being found guilty of killing George Floyd.
The fired Minneapolis police officer is set to remain in the state’s highest security prison for the next eights weeks as he awaits sentencing.
He is being held in a single cell under ‘administrative segregation’ for his safety, according to a Department of Corrections spokeswoman.
His prison cell, which is in a unit known as ‘Super-Seg’, measures about 7 by 10 feet.
It is fitted only with a cement slab bed with a thin mattress, a table, toilet and sink.
The Minnesota maximum security prison where Derek Chauvin will spend the next two months has cells that measure about 7 by 10 feet and include beds made of cement slabs with a thin mattress on top
The toilet and sink in the cells are made of steel to prevent them from being broken and possibly used as weapons or in a bid to escape
The toilet and sink are made of steel to prevent them from being broken and possibly used as weapons or in a bid to escape.
Each cell also has a thin rectangular window that is too thin for inmates to escape from.
Chauvin, 45, was immediately taken to the Minnesota Correctional Facility – Oak Park Heights on Tuesday and was placed on suicide watch after being found guilty of killing George Floyd
Chauvin is expected to be closely watched while at Oak Park Heights given how his high profile trial and prior employment as a police officer makes him a higher risk of being targeted.
The prison’s restricted housing unit, which is where Chauvin is being held, has extremely high levels of security for inmates who are being disciplined or those who need to be separated due to safety concerns.
Inmates in the unit are checked on every 30 minutes and have minimal to zero contact with prison guards.
The prison, which is Minnesota’s only level five maximum-security facility for male inmates, is located about 25 miles east of Minneapolis near the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.
The facility sits on 160 acres and has a large courtyard and baseball field in the center.
It is considered the state’s more secure given no inmates have ever escaped and only one inmate has ever been killed by a prisoner in custody.
‘Oak Park Heights operates at the highest custody level of any facility in the Minnesota DOC system,’ according to the prison.
‘Most individuals housed in the facility are designated at either maximum or close custody levels.’
Inmates are allowed visitors only from Thursday to Saturday and visits are restricted to one hour each.
Each cell also has a thin rectangular window that is too thin for inmates to escape from
It is considered the state’s more secure given no inmates have ever escaped and only one inmate has ever been killed by a prisoner in custody
The facility sits on 160 acres and has a large courtyard and baseball field in the center
Chauvin is expected to be closely watched while at Oak Park Heights given how his high profile trial and prior employment as a police officer makes him a higher risk of being targeted
The prison, which was once featured in National Geographic’s America’s Hardest Prison TV series, has reported just one inmate being killed by another prisoner while in custody.
Shane Lawrence Cooper was found strangled to death in his cell back in 2013. Inmate Benjamin Heath Beck, who was spotted on surveillance video entering Cooper’s cell prior, later pleaded guilty to killing him.
The prison, which can hold up to 473 inmates, is home to some of the state’s most notorious criminals.
Paul Michael Stephani, a notorious serial killer known as the ‘weepy-voiced killer’, was jailed there until his death in 1998 for murdering at least three women in Minneapolis.
The serial killer got his name by anonymously reporting the murder to police in a remorseful and high-pitched voice.
John Jason Mclaughlin, who carried out the deadly Rocori High School shooting in 2003, is also jailed there.
Mclaughlin was a freshman when he opened fire at his high school, killing two of his classmates.
The facility sits on 160 acres and can hold up to 473 inmates at a time
The prison, which was once featured in National Geographic’s America’s Hardest Prison TV series, has reported just one inmate being killed by another prisoner while in custody
One inmate being killed by another prisoner while in custody at the prison. Shane Lawrence Cooper was found strangled to death in his cell back in 2013
Paul Michael Stephani, a notorious serial killer known as the ‘weepy-voiced killer’, was jailed there until his death in 1998. John Jason Mclaughlin, who carried out the deadly Rocori High School shooting in 2003, is also jailed there
