As essential employees, federal prison workers in Minnesota are working through the shutdown without pay.

Minnesota has four Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facilities, all located in Greater Minnesota: Rochester, Duluth, Waseca and Sandstone. At least 619 federal employees worked at the facilities as of 2024, according to federal data.

In an already stressful workplace, morale drops fast during a shutdown, said Sandy Parr, who served as a local and national union leader during her 26-year career at Rochester’s federal medical center for BOP inmates.

“If you’re an essential worker you show up to work and you’ll get backpay, but that doesn’t help when a mortgage is due and you have to put formula in your baby’s mouth,” she said.

Parr, who retired in April, was president of the Local 3947 union

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