Leroy Kirkegard has been named the new warden at Montana State Prison.

HELENA — Montana native and Las Vegas detention official Leroy Kirkegard was named Tuesday as the new warden at Montana State Prison, becoming the first new warden at the prison in 16 years.

Tammy Appointments, Montana

For inmates in the Gallatin County jail work program, it just got a little more expensive to wear a distinctive orange clothing emblazoned with the words ”Gallatin County Inmate” while whacking weeds.

Sheriff Jim Cashell got the go-ahead from county commissioners Tuesday to charge inmates $10 to participate in the work program. Cashell said the fee was always part of the bargain but that his office “got away” from charging it in recent years. Report by Belgrade News.

The money, he said, will cover administration costs.

“With the increase in the number of folks (in the work program), we wanted to recoup some costs,” he said.

Local judges have been assigning more people to the work program rather than putting them behind bars, he said. State law allows some nonviolent offenders to work eight hours a day in lieu of sitting in jail.

Offenders receive credit for two days in jail for every day they work, and most have their sentence completed in less than five days.

“We have two vans of folks now, so it’s doubled,” he said.

In addition to charging the fee, the commission also agreed to ban cell phone use among offenders who are serving their time in the work program, he said.

In other business Tuesday:

• Commissioners appointed three new members to the Gallatin County Fair Board. Kwinci Tatarka, Betsy Heckel and John Shellenberger each will serve for two years.

The board was recently increased from seven to nine members, fairgrounds manger Sue Shockley said. The board has numerous subcommittees and members wanted to boost the board’s size to spread the burden around more.

“They wanted to increase the size because there is so much going on,” she said. “It’s good to have more input.”

The fair board is looking at several improvements to the facility as part of its master plan. The plan includes more ice rinks, a swimming facility and an events center, among other items. The board is also working with the city of Bozeman, Montana State University and local climbers to construct an 85-foot climbing tower to lure international climbing events to the area.

• The commission granted a preliminary plat extension for the Gateway Village minor subdivision. The land is owned by Bozeman resident David Loseff and is the potential site for a high-end RV park along U.S. Highway 191 near Gallatin Gateway.

The minor subdivision predated the RV park. Loseff has said he doesn’t want to give up the minor subdivision plat until the trailer park idea is more finalized.

Tammy Montana, Work Programs, Work Release

The Great Falls Tribune has a long and fascinating article about how the Montana DOC is reaching out to Native American inmates.  These are merely excerpts.

Indians make up about 7 percent of the state’s population, but represent a much larger chunk of the prison population. Among men, 19.5 percent of inmates are Native American. At the women’s prison, Indians made up just more than 27 percent of the inmate population in 2008.  Felony crimes on Indian reservations are prosecuted by the federal government, so those offenders would have nothing to do with the Montana Department of Corrections.   Even so, many Native American inmates in Montana’s corrections system are steeped in traditional culture, said Myrna Kuka, American Indian liaison for the DOC …

A good example of that effort is the DOC’s policy regarding inmates attending funerals. Previously, the policy allowed inmates to attend funerals only for a few relatives — brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents.In Native American culture, however, family structure tends to be less clear. It’s more common for a neighbor to take on the role of a grandparent or a cousin to be as close as a brother, Kuka said. Yet policy prohibited inmates from attending those funerals … The policy is more flexible now, including a provision that allows inmates to designate at the beginning of their sentence whose funeral would be important for them to attend …

The state’s three largest prison facilities have sweat lodges where inmates can hold religious services. At the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge and some other facilities, inmates also are able to participate in pipe ceremonies, drum ceremonies, smudging and talking circles.

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In this time of economic turmoil some legislators in Kansas and elsewhere say the price of justice is too high. They have introduced legislation to take the death penalty off the books over financial concerns. CNN reports.

“Because of the downturn in the national economy, we are facing one of the largest budget deficits in our history,” state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Republican, said in an opinion piece posted on TheKansan.com Friday. “What is certain is we are all going to have to look at new and creative ways to fund state and community programs and services.”   The state would save more than $500,000 per case by not seeking the death penalty, McGinn wrote, money that could be used for “prevention programs, community corrections and other programs to decrease future crimes against society” …

A 2008 study by the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research group based in Maryland, found that an average capital murder trial in the state resulting in a death sentence costs about $3 million, or $1.9 million more than a case where the death penalty is not sought.  A similar 2008 study by the ACLU in Northern California found that a death- penalty trial costs about $1.1 million more than a non-death-penalty trial in California …

New Mexico, which also has a bill before the Legislature to abolish the death penalty, has already seen a case where costs dictated the outcome. Last year, the New Mexico attorney general’s office agreed to drop the death penalty for two inmates involved in the stabbing death of a guard, Ralph Garcia, during a 1999 riot at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility.   The change came after the state Legislature failed to provide additional funding for defense attorneys contracted to handle the case by the public defender’s office.  In court documents filed at the time, Attorney General Gary King said his office could not “in good faith under these circumstances” pursue the death penalty against Robert Young and Reis Lopez …

In Colorado, House Bill 1274 proposes to put the anticipated savings from abolishing the death penalty toward the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s cold case homicide team.

Other States with bills for an economic end to the death penalty include Washington, Montana, Nebraska, Texas and New Hampshire.

vericatrajkova California, Colorado, Death Penalty, Economic Issues, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Texas, Washington

The Sheriff of Cascade County MT says he needs more money to run his jail.  The county officers say he is spending his budget too quickly and that he should live within his means.  The Great Falls Tribune reports:

[Sheriff David] Castle was publicly against a tax increase for public safety when he first campaigned for sheriff in 2004. Voters defeated that levy, which would have raised $750,000 a year, but sent Castle on to victory.  Five years later, the sheriff is in danger of running out of money in his 2009 public safety budget long before the year is out, according to Cascade County commissioners.   And they say a bailout is not in the cards.   “He’s expending the funds he’s been allocated at a pace he’s going to run out of money,” Commission Chairman Joe Briggs said.

Sheriff Castle believes the resistance to him is payback for his own resistance to the tax in 2004.

Twice this past fall, Castle sought and was refused more funding. Commissioners say the current issue is about budget management, not politics.   Castle is “burning the rope” too fast in terms of the 2009 public safety budget, Commissioner Peggy Beltrone said.  “This doesn’t have to be an antagonistic situation,” said Commissioner Bill Salina, adding he’s extending an olive branch to the Castle. “This is not a competition” … Castle said he’s so frustrated by the situation he might be forced to begin sending bills to the commissioners’ office at the Courthouse Annex if they don’t come up with additional funds. “I will not be micromanaged,” Castle said, wagging his index finger like a scolding teacher …

The 2009 public safety budget approved by commissioners in November was $9.2 million, which was $229,000 more than 2008.  As part of the 2009 budget, commissioners approved $639,107 in wage increases for sheriff’s office employees. Castle said his food budget for the jail was cut by $573,000 to help pay for the salary increases.  The increase in salaries and decrease in food funding sticks in the sheriff’s craw. He calls the move “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Castle said he is all for pay increases, but he believes extra funding should come with them.

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, MT Cascade County, Montana

A consultant is recommending the Montana Department of Corrections build a second major prison complex in eastern Montana.

A firm hired by the governor, at the request of the Legislature, looked at what Montana’s offender population will be in 2015, 2020 and 2025.  In a report, consultant Carter Goble Lee said the current women’s prison in Billings is a viable structure, but not appropriate to house all custody levels of female inmates. The consultant said expansion will not correct deficiencies of the existing prison.

The consulting firm recommended a new complex in the Billings area to house both male and female prisoners, at a cost of more than $371 million.  It is now up to the 13-member Department of Corrections Advisory Council to decide whether to forward the proposal to Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

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A much-questioned Hardin jail is no longer in the running for a $2.7 million Montana correctional contract, a committee decided Monday.

The empty 450-bed lockdown has never opened for business since it was completed late last year and has since defaulted on the revenue bonds sold to finance its construction.  Members of the Department of Corrections committee that evaluated the jail said at a meeting that Two Rivers Authority, the economic development arm of the city of Hardin that built the jail, failed to answer several key questions about the facility, despite being given a second chance to do so.  “Right now, we’d be contracting with a company in default,” said Gary Willems, chief of Corrections’ Contracts and Facility Management Bureau. “I think that might be a first, for the Department of Corrections, anyway.”

Overall, the panel concluded that Two Rivers failed to show how it would staff the jail with qualified workers, how it arrived at the per-day costs they previous quoted the state and failed to show that the jail is financially sound.  The panel was particularly concerned that Two Rivers reported it would still be in default, even if it won the contract. The agency said it would need two state contracts to make its revenue bond payments. The decision means that the Butte-based Community, Counseling and Correctional Services, Inc., or CCCS, will now be awarded the contract for the 88-bed facility.

At issue was which entity would run the program, which was begun three years ago as a pilot project for probationers who fail to follow the conditions of their release. Called the Sanction, Treatment, Assessment and Revocation Transition program, or START, the regimen is intended to be in a prison-like setting where errant probationers can get a sampling of life behind bars, while also receiving various therapies to help them succeed in society.  CCCS has been running the state’s pilot START program for the past three years at a jail-like building in Warm Springs.  The same panel previously met in late September and gave Two Rivers a slim lead in the first step toward awarding the contract. However, the panel members said then they had many questions about Two River’s proposal and asked the group to come back with more information. The panel also asked CCCS to clarify one part of its proposal.  The group met again Monday to evaluate the updated information it had received. They concluded that CCCS had answered all of their questions, while Two Rivers had left many unanswered.

The decision came as the latest development in the Hardin jail’s long path to open its doors. The 450-bed jail was built by the city of Hardin, a town which has no police force nor city jail. It was intended to be an economic development tool to provide jobs to the community.  Jail backers have said they were led to believe by the past Corrections director that if they built the jail, the state would place inmates there. However, no contracts were in place before the jail was built and no written agreements to that effect have ever been produced.  The state has no use for the space, agency officials say.

To fill the jail, Two Rivers and Hardin authorities began looking to other states for inmates, but first had to prove to a Helena judge that the facility could legally accept out-of-state inmates.    The judge ruled in Two Rivers’ favor earlier this year, but no other states have publicly expressed interest in the jail.   The START contract was the first time Two Rivers had applied for a state contract. Greg Smith, executive director of the Two Rivers Authority, said Monday the authority learned some things after going through this process which it applied in its second bid for a state contract to house sex offenders at the site.

vericatrajkova County-State Issues, MT Hardin, Montana

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has just released the 2005 Census of Federal and State Correctional Facilities.  The document has a wealth of data across all States, including the numbers of privately-operated facilities.

The document can be accessed from the Basic Stats list at the top right sidebar.

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The Cascade County MT Sheriff has talked with concern to the Great Falls City Commission about the MT Department of Corrections’ “80/20″ plan.

The stated premise of the 80/20 plan is to have 80% of prisoners sent to community corrections facilities or pre-release programs.  Sheriff David Castle says that might create more strain on not only his office, but the police department, hospital, and other services.  And since Cascade County has one of the largest community-based correctional facilities in the state, the sheriff believes that will bring in more criminals from outside of the county.

Sheriff Castle said, “Great Falls is a terrific community; we are probably the best people in the state, and we’re always there raising our hands saying we’re going to help…but I want to make sure we’re not disproportionate(ly) represented.”  Cascade County currently has approximately 200 people in pre-release centers, and nearly 1,200 people on probation or parole.

vericatrajkova Community Corrections, County-State Issues, Early Release, MT Cascade County, Montana, Re-Entry

• More than 100 counties in Kentucky are suing the state for inmate costs.
• Montana DOC has won the 2007 Gang Unit of The Year Award.
• Emporia KS Community Corrections reports success with anti-recidivism programs.
• Private prison to relieve overcrowding approved for McLennan County TX.

vericatrajkova CEC, Community Corrections, County-State Issues, Gangs (STGs), KS Santa Fe Trail Community Corrections, Kentucky, Montana, Private Prisons, TX McLennan County