Inspection and Enforcement

DOC's construction chapter for jails has not been amended since 1978, when it was codified in the precursor publication to Minnesota Rules. Since moving to Minnesota Rules in 1983, the chapter has remained unamended. Consisting of only six rule parts, the construction chapter is outdated, poorly drafted, light on details, and generally inadequate on construction best practices and DOC needs and those of construction companies.

To replace the current construction chapter, DOC is proposing a comprehensive performance-based standard that supplements the State Building Code and establishes uniform performance standards. These performance standards will standardize jail construction and serve to promote efficiency and economy, allowing jails to deliver high-quality correctional services.

DOC published a Request for Comments on August 30, 2021, and is in the rule-drafting stage.

• Request for Comments
• Rule draft

Since 1976, DOC has had the authority to inspect adult correctional facilities, or jails, for compliance with minimum standards. DOC's authority and the minimum standards, however, have not been substantively revised for half a century. This long regulatory inaction has resulted in deaths and life-threatening safety issues. DOC, spurred by the consequences of archaic and insufficient standards, worked with the legislature and key stakeholders to pass the transformative Hardel Sherrell Act (2021). 

The act greatly enhanced DOC's ability to improve the standards of confinement and ensure that all justice-involved populations are treated with basic levels of care. For the first time, the legislature mandated topics for DOC to include in its minimum standards (see section 241.021, subdivision 1).  

 

DOC is in the rule-drafting stage and has convened an advisory committee.

• Request for Comments
• Rule draft

The department licenses facilities that provide correctional services to adults accused of, charged with, or convicted of a criminal offense. Most adults are placed in the facilities by county probation agencies, the federal government, or the department. An adult may also be placed in a facility by the Direct Care and Treatment’s Minnesota Sex Offender Program.

DOC published a Request for Comments on July 21, 2025, and is in the rule-drafting stage.

Request for Comments

Both chapters 2955 (juveniles) and 2965 (adults) were adopted in 1999 to establish minimum standards to certify (1) sex offender treatment programs in state and local correctional facilities, and (2) state-operated sex offender treatment not operated in state and local correctional facilities.

The rules originated from a concerted effort by the legislature to control, manage, and provide appropriate treatment for persons perpetrating sexual crimes.

 

DOC has published the proposed rules. You can learn more on the main rulemaking page.

The department previously convened an advisory committee to help it draft the rules. Meeting notes and other documents from the advisory committee can be found on the advisory committee web page.

The Court of Administrative Hearings has assigned the proposed rules a docket number and an administrative law judge

Docket number: 22-9051-40735

Administrative law judge: Judge Moseng

• Request for Comments
• Rule draft (4-28-2025)

The following publications will be incorporated by reference into the department's proposed rules:

1. Best Practice Guidelines for the Assessment, Treatment, Risk Management, and Risk Reduction of Men Who Have Committed Sexually Abusive Behaviors, Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (2025).
   • Read the publication
2. Practice Guidelines for Assessment, Treatment, and Intervention with Adolescents Who Have Engaged in Sexually Abusive Behavior, Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (2017).
   • Read the publication
3. Standards of Practice, American Polygraph Association (2024).
   • Read the publication
4. Model Policy for Post-Conviction Sex Offender Testing, American Polygraph Association (2021).
   • Read the publication

In the 2023 legislative session, the legislature passed new restrictions on using strip searches and disciplinary room time in DOC-licensed juvenile facilities under Minnesota Statutes, section 241.021, subdivision 2. As part of the new requirements, the legislature required DOC to adopt rules on training, facility audits, strip searches, disciplinary room time, time-outs, and seclusion.

The rules have been adopted and were published in the State Register on November 12, 2024.

• Rulemaking authority
• 2023 statute (241.0215) on strip searches and disciplinary room time (isolation)
• Interim guidance
• SSP Process Map
• Adopted rule
• OAH order
• Fact sheet