The idea for the creation of the original Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater came in February 1851 as part of legislation dealing with territories. However, the prison did not start receiving inmates until two years later in March 1853, which was still five years before Minnesota was inducted into statehood. At the beginning of the 20th century the prison started to become severely overcrowded, leading to the passing of legislation providing allowances to build a new prison south of the original location. The new prison, created in 1912, was placed on of land and included two factory buildings, two warehouses, a hospital, a chapel, a greenhouse, a dining hall, and five cell buildings to accommodate the large number of prisoners. The prison was run by the warden and the Board of Inspectors, which had three members who created the prison rules and were in charge of determining and implementing punishments within the prison. In 1901 the Board of Inspectors was replaced by the State Board of Control, which had monthly meetings at the prison and mostly involved reviewing and discussing parole requests. This lasted until 1959. During 1959 the State Board of Control relinquished its authority to the Minnesota Department of Corrections, which had recently been established.