Starting in July, a new citizen panel will review requests from inmates serving mandatory minimum life sentences, mostly for first-degree murder. Previously, the review process has been done by the corrections commissioner.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections will soon seek citizen help with deciding who gets out of prison and who remains locked up. Because of a 2023 change by the Legislature, Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell will no longer make release decisions on his own. Starting in July, a new citizen panel will decide which inmates serving life sentences are released and which stay in prison. "This .