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Corrections considers out-of-state transfers
by JENNIFER McKEE

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/11/16/news/mtregional/news08.txt

HELENA
Up to 200 Montana prisoners may be moved to
private lockdowns in Minnesota or Colorado if
current overcrowding in the state penal system
continues, state Director Bill Slaughter said. He
told the Corrections Advisory Council he'd rather
not move any Montanans out of state and has
no immediate plans to do so.


But the state was holding 176 prisoners in county
jails, waiting for space at the state level. If that figure
climbs to 250 or 300, Montana will start moving
prisoners to other places, Slaughter said.

“We've packed county jails to the point where they've got to think about dangerous
situations of their own right now,” he told the 24-member, governor-appointed board.
“There are right now over 4,000 felony warrants sitting in sheriff's offices.”

County sheriffs can't serve the warrants, he said, because they've got no room in
their jails in which to house the accused.

Slaughter said the overcrowding situation is temporary.

The state expects to have room for several hundred more prisoners in Montana opening
up relatively soon. Corrections officials will soon ask for bids on a private,
nonprofit businesses to run a “special needs” prison that would have room for 256
inmates.

That prison would be for inmates who are elderly, have mental illness or some other
condition that makes them more difficult to care for in regular lockdown.

Last month, the state asked for bids on a new, separate methamphetamine treatment
prison with room for 120 prisoners.

In addition, officials are trying to recruit enough new correctional officers at the
Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge to allow it to open up a wing with room for 84
prisoners. The wing is closed now for lack of staff.

Those new prison cells would eliminate the need to move Montana's inmates elsewhere,
Slaughter said.

In the meantime, Slaughter told the panel, Montana's corrections system is walking a
tight rope: Just one inmate fight at a county jail or Deer Lodge could tip the system
over the breaking point, forcing the state to move prisoners out of state.

If the state puts just 74 more people in county jails, they'll be pushing the county
penal system into dangerous territory and would likely have to start moving inmates
elsewhere, he said.

Slaughter said in an interview afterward that it's possible the state won't have to
move inmates. But they must have plans in place, he said, in case something happens
that requires a sudden, out-of-state prisoner transfer.

“The best thing that would happen is we could totally avoid it,” he said, “but we
have to be realistic.”

Slaughter told the panel he is beginning to negotiate backup plans to move inmates to
private prisons in Minnesota or Colorado.

Both prisons are owned by Corrections Corp. of America, the same company that owns
Montana's only private prison, the Crossroads Correction Center in Shelby.

He estimated the cost of holding prisoners out-of-state would be similar to what the
state is paying to house them at Crossroads, a little more than $50 a day.

Slaughter also said even the new treatment and special-needs prison will not solve
Montana's long-term problem with prisons. The state needs to begin talking about its
philosophy on handling crime and punishment for the future, he said.

Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger, chairman of the council, said afterward he's hopeful the
state can avoid shipping Montana prisoners away.

“When they're in Montana, they have a support network of family and friends that can
assist them in their recovery and in their development of new lifestyles,” he said.
“We send them out of state and they lose that.”

He also said he worried that Montana inmates might be exposed to a more nefarious
sort of prison life in out-of-state lockdowns.

“We should make every attempt we can to keep Montanans here,” he said

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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all *****-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.

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undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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