Minnesota prison on lockdown after about 100 inmates ‘refuse’ to return to cells amid a heat wave

STILLWATER, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota prison has been placed on emergency lockdown after about 100 inmates in a housing unit facing dangerously high heat would not return to their cells. One former inmate on Sunday called the move by prisoners an act of “self-preservation.” The Department of Corrections said Sunday that the situation is currently stable and that it remained unclear why inmates were refusing to return to their cells. However, advocates who gathered outside of the Stillwater prison said inmates are fed up with excessive heat, limited access to showers and ice and unclean drinking water. The prison is about 25 miles east of Minneapolis, which is under a heat advisory for temperatures approaching 100 degrees Sunday.