Intake/reception (men) · Reception and Intake Center · MN DOC

Minnesota Correctional Facility – St. Cloud

St. Cloud, Sherburne County, Minnesota

Visiting schedules change without notice. Always call before traveling.

Call Visiting Office: 320-240-3000 Info last verified: June 2026

The statewide reception and intake facility for men entering Minnesota's prison system, in St. Cloud — a historic walled prison where newly sentenced men are received and classified before placement.

Statewide rules that apply at MN DOC prisons

These rules are set by MN DOC and apply at every unit. The full list — including all permitted and prohibited items and the approval process — is in Visiting in Minnesota.

Dress code

Dress modestly — Minnesota facilities enforce a visiting dress code that bars revealing, transparent, or provocative clothing, gang-related items, and anything resembling what incarcerated people or staff wear.
Each facility may turn away a visitor who is dressed out of code, and electronic devices are not allowed inside, so confirm the specific facility's rules before traveling.

ID: Every visitor must be approved before visiting — the visitor application is mailed to the Minnesota DOC's central intake at MCF-Rush City. Bring a government-issued photo ID to each visit.
What to bring: Bring only what the facility allows — most personal items are not permitted in the visiting room. Money for an incarcerated person's account is sent through JPay, never handed over at a visit.
Scheduling: Confirm each facility's visiting days and hours, and whether visits must be scheduled in advance, with the specific prison. Video visits are available through JPay Video Connect. Men enter the system at MCF-St. Cloud; women at MCF-Shakopee, the only women's prison.

Full statewide rules: Visiting in Minnesota

Overview

Minnesota Correctional Facility – St. Cloud (MCF-St. Cloud) is the statewide reception and intake facility for men entering the Minnesota prison system. It is in St. Cloud, in Sherburne County in central Minnesota, and is run by the Minnesota Department of Corrections (MN DOC). Newly sentenced adult men are received here, assessed, and assigned a custody level before being placed at the facility where they will serve their sentence. St. Cloud is one of the oldest institutions in the state, a walled prison that opened in 1889.

What Makes MCF-St. Cloud Different

MCF-St. Cloud is the single point of entry for men coming into Minnesota’s prison system. Newly sentenced men are received and processed here, where staff evaluate each person and classify them to a custody level — Levels 1 through 5 — that determines where they are placed for the rest of their sentence. Because of this reception role, many men housed at St. Cloud are there for a relatively short intake period and are later transferred to another Minnesota prison. The facility is also one of the state’s most recognizable: a historic walled institution that opened in 1889, known for the long granite wall that surrounds it.

Visiting

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

Getting There and Parking

MCF-St. Cloud is at 2305 Minnesota Boulevard SE in St. Cloud, in Sherburne County in central Minnesota. St. Cloud is about an hour and a quarter northwest of the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro area, reached by way of Interstate 94 and U.S. Highway 10. Confirm visitor parking and entrance procedures with the facility when arranging a visit.

Nearby Services

St. Cloud is a regional center with a full range of hospitals, lodging, fuel, and dining, and it is served by St. Cloud Regional Airport, with larger air service in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area to the southeast. Visitors traveling a long distance generally find the most options along the Interstate 94 corridor. Confirm current options and travel time for the day of a visit.

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-St. Cloud, 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.

Sources

This page is compiled from the following publicly available sources. Policies change without notice — confirm current details with the facility before relying on them.