State pitches prison pre-release center

Corrections Department will ask Legislature for money to build 40-bed Flathead facility

The Daily Inter Lake

Flathead County commissioners heard a pitch Wednesday morning to build a prison pre-release center here.

Kerry Pribnow of the Department of Corrections said he found a receptive audience in commissioners Gary Hall and Joe Brenneman.

"These numbers are staggering," Hall said.

The numbers that Pribnow gave to the commissioners show that Flathead County contributes 1,252 people to the state corrections system - the third- or fourth-highest of any county in Montana. Lake and Lincoln counties add another 675 offenders. The numbers were compiled in October.

Because there is no pre-release center here, 147 offenders from this region were sent to centers in Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman, and Butte, Pribnow said. Flathead County is the only large county without a facility.

Pribnow will ask the Legislature next week for money to build a center. Gov. Brian Schweitzer favors the plan, Pribnow said.

He has talked to local law-enforcement leaders and judges.

"I've gotten no opposition," he said.

The plan is to build a 40-bed facility, managed by the state. A nonprofit entity will contract to build and run the center.

Another 40-bed facility would be built in Pablo, serving American Indian offenders from around the state.

The plan depends upon approval from Lake and Flathead counties. If Lake County and the tribe refuse the proposal, 80 beds could be built in Flathead County if the community is willing, Pribnow said.

The state won't build a center if the community opposes it, he said.

The state initially is seeking $1.9 million.

There are reasons why a community would welcome a pre-release center, according to Pribnow.

It is cheaper to house someone in a pre-release center than it is in the state prison, he said. As it is, there are prisoners who qualify to leave the prison, but no pre-release space exists for them. The options are to keep them in prison or release them directly into the community, where they will be minimally supervised by probation and parole officers who are carrying caseloads of 80-100 parolees each, Pribnow said.

"This is tool in the tool box that is just not available in this area," he said.

A Flathead center wouldn't import offenders from other communities; it would handle some of the area residents who currently are being diverted to other communities from the prison, Pribnow said.

A Flathead County center would allow parolees to return to the community and their families, to work where they live. People who must relocate from the prison to another town with no jobs or home are at the highest risk of getting in trouble, Pribnow said.

Offenders are supervised in pre-release centers, which are located in industrial areas, not residential areas. In Billings, the center was built in a former Howard Johnson motel. Officials in counties that have centers are writing letters expressing their satisfaction with them, Pribnow said.

Employers like to have centers in their communities, he said. They provide workers who are required to show up sober for work. As a result, they can pay taxes, fines and restitution, child support, and their own medical expenses, Pribnow said.

Communities with pre-release centers have local screening committees to consider who will be housed.

"The department is not just shoving people down your throat," Pribnow said.

Another feature is that the operator of a pre-release center can contract beds with local and federal offenders. In Flathead County, that could relieve the jail of people being held on multiple charges of driving under the influence, for example.

The next step is a public hearing, Pribnow said.

Whitefish resident John Weaver has a background in corrections. He favors a local pre-release center and is working on a project that could dovetail with the state's plans.

Hall suggested also holding a town-hall meeting with Kalispell officials.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com