Forum planned on pre-release center proposal

City and county officials will hold a forum for public comment on a prison pre-release center the Montana Department of Corrections is proposing for the Kalispell area.

The public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on May 8 at the Expo Building at the Flathead County Fairgrounds.

Members of a local working committee will answer questions and hear concerns from residents about the project. The 12-member committee was appointed jointly by the Kalispell City Council and the Flathead County Board of Commissioners in January.

"This first meeting is an informational meeting," said Steve Breck, a local businessman and working committee chairman.

Breck's committee is responsible for determining whether there is sufficient public support for the project and, if so, where the facility should be placed.

Pre-release centers hold prison inmates nearing the end of their sentences. They are designed to help inmates hold jobs and gradually re-enter the community under strict supervision, said Kerry Pribnow, the pre-release center contracts manager for the Department of Corrections.

Some offenders, however, are sentenced directly to pre-release facilities.

Corrections officials have emphasized that, due to both Kalispell and Flathead County zoning ordinances, the pre-release facility would not be placed in a residential area.

The state has strict guidelines about how close to schools and parks a pre-release center can be placed, Breck said. After the working committee identifies areas for the successful bidder to build on, another public meeting will be held, he added.

The Legislature already has appropriated $1.9 million to operate the proposed 40-bed facility for its first year.

Flathead County has about 1,300 people in the state's corrections system, the third- or fourth-highest of any county in Montana. Lake and Lincoln Counties contribute about another 650 offenders.

Because there is no pre-release center here, about 85 offenders from this region have been sent to other centers across the state. In the past seven years, 899 offenders from Flathead County have spent time in pre-release centers at Missoula, Bozeman, Butte, Billings, Helena and Great Falls.

About half those offenders have moved back to the Kalispell area.

There are more than 800 people on probation or parole in the Kalispell area, a figure pre-release center proponents say shows that offenders do return home regardless of whether or not a pre-release center exists to ease them back into society.

"The bottom line is that they're not bringing anybody who isn't already coming here," Breck said.

The proposed pre-release center would be overseen by a community-based board of directors, according to the working committee. A screening body made up of local law enforcement officials, community members, representatives from Department of Corrections and the pre-release center itself will determine which offenders, including sex offenders, would be accepted.

"The department's goal is to integrate offenders back into communities, and the local screening committee ensures that you decide who is coming to your community-based facility," said Pribnow.

The center would be managed by the state, but a private nonprofit group would be contracted to build and operate it. Missoula Correction Services, the firm that runs the Missoula pre-release center, has expressed interest in bidding on the project should it achieve community approval and has already met with local government, legal and law enforcement officials.

Working committee members argue that the community will benefit from having a pre-release center, including a workforce that is required to show up sober for work and, as a result, can pay taxes, fines and restitution, child support and medical expenses.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com