WOMEN'S CORRECTIONAL UNIT PLANNED

A correctional facility to keep women out of prison is planned for
Billings, the Department of Corrections director said Thursday.

"This is an individualized program designed to divert those sentenced
to the department to other options," Bill Slaughter said.

The Billings Assessment and Sanctions Center, with 30 beds, will be
designed to keep inmates out of the main prison and reduce the cost
of dealing with increasing numbers of convicts. It also will provide
services aimed at preventing prisoners from returning to the main
prison facility.

The Billings center will be for women only, similar to a men's
facility in Missoula.

Slaughter said the program is part of the overall expansion approved
by the 2005 Legislature to deal with more Montanans entering the
penal system. Montana has 3,000 men and women locked up. Another
8,000 are on probation, parole or in pre-release programs.

"One in every 90 Montanans is incarcerated or under supervision,"
Slaughter said.

It costs the system $68 a day to house a prisoner in Deer Lodge,
Shelby and Billings, he said. Programs such as the Billings center
could cost $42 a day or as little as $16 a day.

The Billings center will be a secure, 45-day diversionary program for
convicts sentenced to Corrections supervision rather than prison.

Another 60 pre-release beds, such as those at Alternatives Inc., will
be added in Billings, he said. Alternatives is a pre-release center
that supervises inmates who are working their way back into the
community. They have jobs and are required to save money while in the program.

In the Billings program, "We'll clean them up, get them into anger
management, drug and alcohol programs and treatment for their mental
heath problems," Slaughter said. One of the reasons Billings was
chosen was the availability of services for women here.

Slaughter, a former Gallatin County sheriff, was appointed head of
the Corrections Department in January 2001 by then-Gov. Judy Martz, a
Republican. He was retained as director by Democratic Gov. Brian
Schweitzer. The department has a biennial budget of $240 million and
1,200 employees.

Yellowstone County has been a great partnership for the state because
of the available pool of workers and professional staff, Slaughter said.

"We want these nondangerous offenders coming out with better
counseling, education and life skills," he said. "Eighty-five percent
of the women prisoners are nondangerous offenders."

Those who resist or reject the Billings program will find themselves
in prison, he said.

The Montana Women's Prison in Billings was built to hold 207
prisoners. It has 235 inmates, Slaughter said. Statewide there are
301 women inmates, with the difference being held in county jails.

Slaughter said as a general rule, men are put in prison "to protect
us from them. For women, it is to protect them from themselves. The
vast majority of crimes committed by women are nonviolent and are
directly and indirectly connected to drug abuse."

The state is also on the verge of setting up a 120-bed
methamphetamine addiction treatment program, Slaughter said. A
request for proposals will go out in October.

This is another diversionary-type program, Slaughter said. The
preliminary plan calls for two 40- to 60-bed facilities for men and women.

"We'd like them to be co-located if possible," he said. The request
for proposals will go to Montana private, nonprofit organizations
similar to Alternatives.

Slaughter said there "might be siting issues," so the state is
considering state-owned property that might be suitable.

The treatment centers for the highly addictive drug would probably be
patterned on the "therapeutic community" model now used at Warm
Springs for those imprisoned for fourth DUI convictions.

The six-month program is around-the-clock with an emphasis on the
inmate's responsibility to his treatment family.

Slaughter said the meth treatment incarceration would probably be a
nine-month program followed by a six-month, step-down process in a
pre-release facility.

Slaughter said Montana's meth-treatment plan could be the only one of
its kind in the country.

He said Schweitzer is willing to try innovative programs to address
the burgeoning meth problem.