The Minnesota Sheriffs Association (MSA) issued a vote of no confidence in Commissioner Paul Schnell of the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC). The vote appears to be the first of its kind in the history of the MSA.
Schnell, who was appointed DOC commissioner by Gov. Tim Walz, has led the agency since January of 2019. In that role, Schnell oversees Minnesota’s prison system, but the DOC also has authority to inspect and license county jails run by elected sheriffs.
Meanwhile, the MSA is a collection of Minnesota’s 87 elected sheriffs that has existed since 1885. In a Monday announcement, the MSA said it passed a resolution earlier this month which says it no longer has faith in Schnell’s leadership of the DOC.
According to the resolution, county sheriffs and Schnell had enjoyed a positive relationship until the last few years. However, the resolution says “that cooperative approach to jail matters has disappeared and the DOC has elected to pursue a coercive, arbitrary and capricious and dictatorial approach to address the operations of county jails.”
The collection of sheriffs says the DOC has arbitrarily reduced the authorized bed-count in several county jails, re-classified a full-service jail into a temporary 72-hour facility, claimed that counties do not have due process rights to challenge actions by the DOC, failed to be collaborative, and made adverse licensing decisions against jails that were unwarranted.
In turn, the resolution affirmed that the sheriffs have no confidence in Schnell’s leadership, said Schnell’s continued service as DOC commissioner is detrimental to Minnesota’s public safety, and called for Schnell to either resign or for Walz to remove the commissioner.
“The DOC’s arbitrary and capricious decisions are consistently creating hardships for those community members who are incarcerated, the legal community, law enforcement and especially the sheriff’s offices who must anticipate which erratic action the DOC will take against their county,” said an MSA press release about the resolution.
The MSA press release also described the DOC’s conduct as “actions based on whim rather than rule,” and said those decisions “have cost local taxpayers millions of dollars as local government must keep rapidly adapting to their unrealistic, and subjective demands.”
Richard Hodsdon, general counsel for the MSA, told Alpha News that more than 70 sheriffs supported the resolution. Additionally, he said the vote appears to be the first of its kind in the 140-year history of the MSA.
In a statement to Alpha News, the DOC said it takes the MSA’s statements seriously, but the state corrections agency “categorically rejects the claim that its actions are arbitrary or unsupported by law.”
The DOC said it had a good relationship with previous MSA leadership that included problem-solving, assistance, meetings, and feedback. However, “that level of constructive participation has not occurred under the current leadership at MSA,” said the DOC.
The state agency also said its actions “are rooted in law” and it “will not retreat from its responsibility to enforce minimum standards simply because doing so is unpopular or inconvenient.”
“Under Commissioner Schnell’s leadership, DOC remains committed to transparency, collaboration, and lawful oversight,” said the DOC. “We stand ready to work with sheriffs, counties, advocates, and policymakers in good faith to improve jail safety and operations across Minnesota—because lives depend on it.”
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
