PRISONS BURSTING AT THE SEAMS

Officials Ponder Out-Of-State Transfers

HELENA -- State Corrections officials are considering shipping some Montana
inmates to out-of-state prisons this fall due to a methamphetamine-fueled
spike in felons sentenced to hard time.

In a letter to Gov. Brian Schweitzer last week, Corrections Director Bill
Slaughter said the state's prisons are overcrowding and backing up into
county jails.

"Our adult offender population is exceeding the emergency bed capacity of
our" state prisons, the July 26 letter reads.

The state is housing 257 inmates in county jails because there is no room
either at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge or at the state's only
private prison, Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby. Counties,
meanwhile, are sitting on roughly 3,750 outstanding felony warrants they
cannot serve because they have no place to house the felons if they catch them.

"We're certainly bursting at the seams," said Joe Williams, administrator
of Corrections' Centralized Services Division.

Williams said if the state is still holding 200 or more inmates in county
jails by mid-September, the agency would start moving inmates to
out-of-state prisons.

Williams said the state is facing two problems.

First, the Corrections Department is in the middle of launching expansions
approved by the 2005 Legislature. Those include adding 200 more slots in
pre-release centers, a move that will require building more centers or
adding on to existing ones. Department officials also are turning an old
wing of the state prison into a "revocation center," where felons out on
probation and parole can be sent temporarily if they violate the terms of
their release.

Additionally, agency officials are in the early stages of arranging for a
new, lock-down meth treatment center with room for up to 60 people and a
256-bed prison for inmates with special needs, like mental illness or
elderly inmates. Private, non-profit companies, like the kind that
currently run the state's pre-release centers, will likely build those
institutions. Finally, the department is trying to hire more probation and
parole officers and correctional officers.

Second, Williams said, while those expansions may offer a short-term fix to
overcrowding in the state prison, the long-term conundrum of how to deal
with meth in Montana will continue. Without a statewide meth strategy, the
state's penal system will continue to fill up with meth-related felons as
fast as the state can build new prison cells.

"We've filled 1,500 new cells since 1998 and I'm looking to build more,"
Williams said. "You can't build your way out of this. We need to start
hacking away at the root causes of dependency."

He said he's optimistic the new lock-down meth treatment center will be
successful and pave the way for more, similar institutions where addicted
felons learn to be drug and crime-free when they're released.

Ultimately, however, Montana's response to meth will take more than just
the criminal justice system. Williams said exactly how the meth problem
should be tackled is difficult to know. Maybe the state needs more meth
treatment centers outside the criminal justice system and better ways for
addicts and their families to pay for treatment. Maybe the state needs to
do more to expand access to college or technical training, helping people
prepare for the state's changing economy.

"We need to have a statewide discussion," he said. "When (meth addicts) get
to the corrections system, that's it. The options get really limited."

David Ewer, the governor's budget director, said Schweitzer is committed
first to keeping Montanans safe and will spend the money necessary to keep
violent felons off the streets. But he said he agrees with Williams that
meth addiction is so pervasive and complicated, it will take more than
police, judges and jails to solve.

But how government responds to meth will take careful balance.

"This administration has been about strengthening families from day one,"
Ewer said. "Putting money into child care, health care, access to
education. Anything we can do that strengthens the family should help
people make positive choices in their lives. We're open to innovative
solutions."

Montana last sent inmates to out-of-state prisons in the mid-1990s due to
similar overcrowding problems. Republican Gov. Marc Racicot sent some
inmates first to a prison in Texas, where one Montanan briefly escaped and
others were wounded by bullets when guards broke up a protest. In May 1997,
a Montana inmate died in Texas after other prisoners beat him with a
barbell weight in the prison exercise yard.

Montana prisoners were then sent to other prisons in Tennessee and Arizona.
Two Montanans escaped from the Tennessee pen.