RED LAKE — Several people held candles and pleaded for justice and answers Tuesday night, April 8, in Red Lake after another death at the Red Lake Detention Center.
Angel Powers, 24, led the vigil and a protest earlier that day, less than a week after her father, 52-year-old Robin Hanson, died at the Red Lake Detention Center on April 2.
The Red Lake Department of Public Safety stated in a news release that Hanson died at the facility and his body was transported to the Red Lake Indian Health Service hospital. The release also states the death is an active investigation with the FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Red Lake Detention Center is the only correctional facility in Minnesota that isn’t under state jurisdiction; it is one of the 80 correctional facilities managed by the BIA.
In a Wednesday email, the BIA stated the Office of Justice Services Internal Affairs Division will conduct an administrative review of the incident, but "the investigation is being handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
“He was a really happy, nice person. He liked to fix cars, he liked to help people," said Powers about her dad. “If he had his car running, he would bring anyone anywhere they wanted to go. He was a really good person.”
Hanson joins a growing list of names of those who have died at the facility. Dwan Whiteowl, 42, died in the facility in 2023. Twenty-seven-year-old Joseph Fairbanks died there in 2022. Last year, Fairbanks' mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court alleging jail staff ignored her son’s pleas for help. She claimed his death could have been prevented with appropriate medical attention. The lawsuit, according to federal court documents, was dismissed due to a lack of jurisdiction.
Powers, who used to work at the jail, said she believes a similar scenario happened with her father last week.
“Right now, there's probably someone banging on those doors, right as we speak, probably for hours, begging for water,” Powers said.
Throughout the vigil and half-mile march between the Red Lake Trading Post and the detention center, Powers and other Red Lake community members chanted names and demanded justice, answers and an end to medical neglect in the jail.
Powers said she believes her dad suffered needlessly and that change needs to happen.
"They need a better system of how to take care of people with withdrawals, and I feel like that's a big thing right now, is there's a lot of people in there with withdrawals,” Powers said, referring to withdrawal symptoms related to opioid use disorder. "I understand some [are] faking it ... but there are actually people in there who are actually hurting. And I think faking or not, bring them to the hospital.”
Two other women at the vigil, Shalana and Khiana Lussier, shared their experiences and also their grief — a relative, 21-year-old Brittany Yellow-Lussier, died in the facility in 2018, with another lawsuit alleging medical neglect. A trial in that case is slated to begin as soon as October 2025, according to federal court documents.
“Everyone who goes to jail there would rather be in prison, because [in prison] you get canteen, and you get your phone calls, you get to talk to your family,” Khiana Lussier said. “They don't even have pens and paper in there for inmates to write letters.”
Shalana Lussier, 33, is pursuing a degree in criminal justice and tribal law and said she is motivated to be a change-maker at the Red Lake Detention Center and prevent deaths at the jail.
"That shouldn't be in anybody's thoughts, that shouldn't have to occur in somebody's brain, that, ‘Oh my God. I'm [going to] f****** die in this place,” she said. “It shouldn't happen, and it's happened, and it's still happening.”
Editor's note: This article was updated on April 10, 2025, to reflect a comment received from the BIA.
