ST. PAUL — From 2013 to 2023, a law known as the “48-hour rule” required Minnesota’s Department of Human Services to transfer inmates who are civilly committed to a state-operated mental health facility within 48 hours.

According to Chief Deputy Chris Martin, 10,780 hours and 453 days is how long a mentally ill individual was held in the Clay County Correctional Facility until this January. Martin said the individual was admitted in 2023, and for the first five months, he was non-verbal with officers who attempted to offer help.

“He would use hand gestures to communicate and grunts to communicate with us,” Martin said. “After about five months … he started to be verbally aggressive, yelling, shouting, then threatening staff, threatening to harm staff, and then doing self-harm to himself,

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