Crime and Punishment | Page 6

Twine Industry at Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater

A cornerstone of the prison labor system for almost eighty years, the binder twine factory at the Minnesota State Prison employed thousands of inmates who produced over a billion pounds of cordage for regional farmers. The twine-manufacturing industry began at the original facility and continued at a custom-built factory on a new site after the prison moved in 1914. The factory closed in 1970.

Edna Larrabee

Edna Larrabee (left) and a Shakopee Reformatory for Women matron after Larrabee turned herself in to police. Published in the Minneapolis Tribune on March 28, 1948.

Edna Larrabee and Beulah Brunelle

Edna Larrabee and Beulah Brunelle in 1948. Composite of photographs published in the Minneapolis Star, November 22, 1948.

Escape from Shakopee State Reformatory for Women, 1949

Beulah Brunelle (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe) and Edna Larrabee escaped from Shakopee State Reformatory for Women five times between 1946 and 1949. Though most of the breakouts ended in their recapture within a few days, their fourth escape, in 1949, led to eight months of freedom and allowed the two women to live together as a couple while traveling around the United States.

State Reformatory for Women, Shakopee

Postcard with an aerial view of the grounds of the State Reformatory for Women, Shakopee, ca. 1945–1955.

Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee

Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee, 2007. Photo by Kyndell Harkness for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, 2007. Republished with the permission of the Star Tribune.