Initial response positive

Panel hears public comment on facility for offenders

A local working committee tasked with gauging community support for a prison pre-release center in the Kalispell area tested public waters for the first time Thursday.

Responses from about 30 members of the community attending the forum were mostly positive.

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

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

The forum, held in Expo Building at the Flathead County Fairgrounds, was convened to answer questions and inform the public about the potential project.

The 12-member working committee, appointed jointly by the Kalispell City Council and the Flathead County Board of Commissioners in January, will determine whether there is sufficient public support for the project and, if so, where the facility should be placed.

In the next two weeks, the committee will begin surveying residents both inside Kalispell and those within a 10-mile radius of the Kalispell city limits. Montana State University-Billings has been contracted to conduct the nonbiased telephone opinion poll.

Should the committee find that public support for the project exists, it hopes to begin looking for a site in October and begin construction in November.

Audience members questioned committee members about inmates' potential to find better jobs, transportation arrangements, and the possibility of a women's facility.

"We can't just arbitrarily go in and grow a facility," said Kerry Pribnow, the pre-release center contracts manager for the Department of Corrections, adding that the community approval is needed for the selected site and any expansion of the facility.

Corrections officials have emphasized that, because of Kalispell and Flathead County zoning ordinances, the 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, Pribnow said. After the working committee identifies areas for the successful bidder to build on, another public meeting will be held, he added.

"The bottom line is that they're not bringing anybody who isn't already coming here," said Steve Breck, a local businessman and working committee chairman.

Kalispell police Chief Roger Nasset and Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan said a pre-release center, by increasing supervision over returning offenders, may even increase public safety.

"I found out that every [police chief] I spoke with was supportive of the centers in their communities," said Nasset.

Other committee members noted that punishment without treatment tends to perpetuate the cycle of crime. About 89 percent of people in the corrections system have been diagnosed with some sort of addiction.

"Unless we give them a platform from which to make changes in their lives, they're not going to succeed," said Bonnie Olson, Flathead County District Court administrator. "We can bury out heads in the sand and believe they're not in out town, but that's not true."

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.

During 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.

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