Chauvin Is Isolated in Prison

Derek Chauvin will await sentencing in solitary confinement at a Minnesota prison, allowed out of his cell for an hour a day for exercise. The former Minneapolis police officer, convicted Tuesday of murder in the death of George Floyd, will be kept away from other inmates for his safety, the New York Times reports. Chauvin had been out on bond since October, but the judge ordered him to be held after the verdicts were read. Less than an hour later, he was at Minnesota’s only maximum-security prison, in the St. Paul suburb of Oak Park Heights. The prison has him in its Administrative Control Unit, a spokesperson said, per the Star-Tribune, "the state's most secure unit." His sentencing is scheduled for the middle of June.

Chauvin is spending his days in a small cell equipped with a bench with a mattress pad, a combination toilet and sink, and a small shower, the Times reports. Inmates can bring a few items, such as toothpaste and soap, pen and paper, and clothing. They can have reading material if it's approved by officials. Guards are to check him every half-hour, and cameras watch the cells. About one-tenth of the prison population is in the isolated unit. While Chauvin is in the prison, a presentencing investigation will take place and the report turned in to the court before his hearing. (More Derek Chauvin stories.)