This past weekend, I had the opportunity to visit Mahdi in MCF Rush City for the first time. Though I've worked with Mahdi over the phone for several months now, getting to see his face in person and interact with him directly face-to-face was an amazing experience which reinforced everything that I believe to be true about Mahdi. I wanted to provide a short summary of how the visit went and some of the thoughts that I had before, during, and after visiting Mahdi.
Visiting a Prisoner in MN State Prisons
I'm fortunate in many ways, one of which is that until I started working with Mahdi, I had never known anyone that was incarcerated in a MN State run "Correctional Facility". To me, this is a very obvious sign of my white privilege - I have not experienced something that is a basic fact of life for so many Minnesotans, especially those that have Black or Brown skin. This also meant that I was completely new to the process of applying for permission to see a prisoner and visiting a prisoner for the first time was an experience that I was really only prepared to navigate because of my age and the fact that I am very confident now. The fact that English is my first language made the process significantly easier for me than it might be for someone that doesn't speak English or Spanish, the only two languages I could find most visitation information translated into.
Upon arriving at the prison for my first visit, I found the parking area and entered the visitor entrance which was the only thing clearly indicated by signage during the entire visit. Once you enter the facility, you see a desk with a computer monitor, several clipboards with sheets of paper, and a corrections officer. To the left side you will find a waiting area that reminded me very much of a waiting area at a DMV or the gate at an airport. There are 3 vending machines that all only take cash despite the fact that you can't give inmates cash so there is really no reason to have cash on you unless you know about this in advance. There is a soda machine, a snack vending machine, and a ticket dispenser that dispenses a single ticket for $1 (must bring singles with you). That ticket buys you the privilege of having ONE photo taken with your incarcerated friend or family member. Mahdi and I were unable to take a photo during my visit because the Visiting Room was short staffed. There must be 4 COs on to allow for pictures and they only had 3 COs on staff on Saturday. They apologized for the inconvenience and told me to, "always come prepared for photos but don't get your hopes up because it's 50/50 on if we are adequately staffed for a photo". I could think of 10 different ways to solve this problem that wouldn't increase their headcount or staffing requirements, but they wont do things simply because it would make an incarcerated person's life better so I won't bother trying to suggest process improvements there at this time.
Once you're called back to visit, if you haven't already, you must empty the contents of your pockets and also put purses, bags, cell phones, wallets, car keys, etc. in a locker in the waiting area. When you enter into the prison as a visitor you will have the following items in your possession:
The piece of paper you fill out at the front desk to visit.
Your Driver's License or State ID.
The key to the locker where you've placed your possessions.
An invisible ink (UV reactive) stamp on your hand that identifies you for the purposes of the visit. I wasn't able to tell what the stamp said while I was there but captured a photo of the stamp under a UV flashlight once I got home:
The UV / invisible stamp they put on your left hand when you visit someone in a correctional facility
The visiting room itself did not look anything like what I expected. I know TV and movies aren't real, but I expected to be seated at some type of picnic table type thing across from Mahdi. The reality is that you are not allowed to get that close to the inmate that you are visiting except for the first 10 seconds and last 10 seconds of the visit. Upon entering the visitation area I immediately saw Mahdi through a window before I entered the room and locked eyes with him and smiled. He gave me a brief nod of recognition and I entered the visitation area. When I came in I did not notice the padded floor mat near the center of the area where you enter. There is a rubber mat on the floor with painted shoe marks to show you where you and the inmate must place your feet for your initial and final contact at which point you are allowed to give the inmate a handshake and a hug. Your feet are spaced shoulder width apart as indicated by the markers on your side of the mat, and the markers on the inmate's side of the mat are spaced far enough apart that while you are hugging and your torsos touch, your legs are at least a foot or two apart so that you are not able to do any sleight of hand maneuvers to drop something into the inmates pocket.
I spent more than an hour with Mahdi in person, though I don't know exactly how long as there were no clocks anywhere that I could see and my watch was safely locked up a few hundred yards from where I was sitting. I was surprised that the COs did seem to have a decent amount of respect for Mahdi, though how they behave when he doesn't have a visitor may be drastically different than how they behave when a white guy shows up to visit him. I am working on additional blog posts or long-form writing pieces to explain more about what Mahdi and I talked about. There are some extremely urgent problems popping up in many MN state prisons right now as a result of the closure of MCF Stillwater that need to become a primary focus of my work for now as they are directly related to the physical safety and mental wellbeing of Mahdi and all other inmates in Rush City. Stay tuned for more updates as time permits.
FREE MAHDI ALI!
-Nic Hallanger
