MN HF754

Commissioner of corrections shall award a grant to the unPrison Project to develop and implement the Mama's Bus pilot project at Minnesota Correctional Facility - Shakopee from July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2022.

Pilot project provides transportation for mother and child visits organized around reading activities to improve inmate and child literacy, strengthen parent-child bonding, and decrease recidivism.

Goals include decreasing children requiring state services, closing achievement gaps in schools, promoting positive behavioral changes in children, reducing recidivism of incarcerated women, and breaking generational cycles of incarceration in families.

unPrison Project must report annually by September 1 to legislative committees with corrections jurisdiction on pilot project progress, and provide final report by September 1, 2022, on development, implementation, impact, and outcomes.

$316,309 in fiscal year 2020 is appropriated from the general fund to the commissioner of corrections for the grant, available until expended.