Minnesota Correctional Facility – Moose Lake

A medium-security state prison for men in Moose Lake, Minnesota, holding incarcerated people in custody levels 1 through 3.

Overview

Minnesota Correctional Facility – Moose Lake (MCF-Moose Lake) is a state prison for men operated by the Minnesota Department of Corrections. It is in Moose Lake, in Carlton County, in east-central Minnesota. The facility houses incarcerated people in medium custody, covering custody levels 1 through 3.

The Minnesota DOC assigns custody level based on factors that include sentence length, time remaining, and conduct, and a person’s custody level can change during incarceration. The custody class and housing unit held at a given prison can affect how visits are arranged, so families confirm the arrangement that applies to the specific person before a first visit.

What Makes MCF-Moose Lake Different

MCF-Moose Lake is a medium-security men’s prison within the Minnesota DOC system. The one point that most often causes confusion is that a separate facility, the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP), is also located in Moose Lake and shares the campus. The MSOP is not a prison and is not part of the Department of Corrections. It is a civil-commitment treatment program operated by the Minnesota Department of Human Services for people who have completed a prison sentence and have been committed by a court for treatment. The two facilities have different operators, different rules, and different visiting and mail procedures, so a person held in the MSOP is not in DOC custody and is not located through the DOC Offender Locator. Confirm which facility a person is in before traveling or sending anything.

Visiting

The statewide MN DOC rules above — the approved visitor list, the dress code, ID, and item limits — apply at MCF-Moose Lake. The facility’s own arrangements:

Getting There and Parking

MCF-Moose Lake is at 1000 Lakeshore Drive in Moose Lake, in Carlton County in east-central Minnesota. Moose Lake is along Interstate 35 between the Twin Cities to the south and Duluth to the northeast, and is reached by way of Interstate 35 and State Highway 73. The nearest large commercial airport is in the Duluth area to the northeast, with a wider range of service in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area to the south.

Parking is on site. Visitors confirm current entry procedures, the visitor-processing location, and what may be brought onto the grounds with the facility before arriving, because electronic devices and personal items are generally not permitted inside.

Nearby Services

Moose Lake has limited lodging and dining, with additional options in the surrounding Carlton County communities and a wider range in the Duluth area to the northeast. Emergency medical care is available locally, with larger hospitals in the Duluth area. Visitors traveling a long distance generally find the most options for fuel, food, and overnight stays along the Interstate 35 corridor between the Twin Cities and Duluth.

Mail

Minnesota does not deliver friends-and-family mail to the prison. Since November 1, 2024, the Minnesota DOC has personal mail processed off-site by a private vendor, TextBehind, which scans or photocopies each item and sends the copies to the facility (electronic delivery to the person’s tablet is also available for a fee). Mail sent directly to a Minnesota prison is returned to the sender.

Address personal mail this way:

First Name / Last Name, and OID number MCF-Moose Lake, Minnesota (do not abbreviate Minnesota) P.O. Box 247 Phoenix, MD 21131

Items missing a first and last name or the OID number are rejected, and envelopes without complete information are discarded unopened. Mail between two incarcerated people, pen-pal mail, and photo orders also go to the TextBehind address.

Some mail still goes directly to the facility, not to TextBehind: legal mail; published materials, books, and subscription renewals; business mail from courts, counties, child support, and other government agencies; and vital documents such as birth certificates, Social Security cards, and IDs (TextBehind forwards these to the facility). Legal mail is sent to the facility’s own address, and incarcerated people use the facility address as the return address on outgoing legal mail.

Verify the current mailing rules and the facility’s address before sending anything.

Learn More

• Visiting a Minnesota prison — getting on the approved visitor list, scheduling, and what to expect at the visit.
• Sending mail — how the TextBehind scanning system works and how to address letters, photos, and legal mail.
• Phone & video — ViaPath phone calls and JPay Video Connect video visits.
• Sending money — depositing funds through JPay and where government or corporate checks go.
• Medical care — how health care is provided in Minnesota prisons and how to raise a concern.
• Transfers & intake — where people enter the system (men at MCF-St. Cloud, women at MCF-Shakopee) and how transfers work.