MINNCOR Prison industries in Minnesota date back to the production of twine at Stillwater Prison in the 1870s. MINNCOR was created in 1994 to consolidate work from multiple sites and to centralize management functions. MINNCOR produces goods in its own facilities for sale to public-sector customers and also contracts to provide labor to private-sector businesses.
Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop Founded in 2011, the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop is the largest literary and arts program housed within in a United States Department of Corrections. The first classes were offered at the Minnesota State Prison at Lino Lakes and by 2020 the Workshop had expanded to include all of Minnesota's adult facilities. For the first two years of existence, it operated as a residential program for men who had been convicted of property crimes. Program staff facilitated meetings at state prison facilities between victims and offenders, who then paid restitution to the victims after being paroled to the residential facility at the
Minneapolis YMCA Central Building. Program staff and participants also engaged in extensive outreach to community groups, the media, and international symposia to raise awareness about restitution. The program retained its original form for only a couple of years and, by the early 1980s, was transformed into a community service program. ==See also==