Lawmakers seek relief for encumbered justice system

Editor’s note: This article is second in a series previewing some of the issues facing the 2017 Montana Legislature. Legislators convene Jan. 2 in Helena.

By SAM WILSON

and MEGAN STRICKLAND

Daily Inter Lake

With drug use and related crime on the rise, the county jail overflowing with inmates and growing caseloads stretching local judges increasingly thin, Flathead County’s criminal justice officials are hoping local lawmakers can bring some relief during the upcoming legislative session.

Currently, a $1.3 million expansion is underway to fit 36 more beds into the Flathead County Detention Center, which was originally built to hold 63 prisoners. In late October, the facility housed a record 136 prisoners, at which time Sheriff Chuck Curry pointed out that “We’re literally almost physically out of room to put anybody.”

Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset said the space shortage has hit during the middle of an uptick in drug-related arrests, and theft cases that often result from addicts stealing and peddling to get their fix. Those people often can’t be jailed because of the jail-space crisis, and commit more crimes.

“Jail space is paramount right now with the big issue of recidivism,” Nasset said. “People have to understand that when there is no punishment for crime then we deal with those people over and over, and it becomes a vicious cycle.”

That issue isn’t lost on Rep. Frank Garner, a Kalispell Republican preparing to enter his second legislative session. Currently the chief of security at Kalispell Regional Healthcare, Garner spent eight years at the head of the Kalispell Police Department after years as a detective and Drug Task Force agent.

“Heroin and meth use in this state is surging, and it’s driving pressure on our state criminal justice system,” he said in an interview earlier this month, adding, “We’re not going to throw people in jail enough to dig our way out of it.”

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Montana’s rate at which those with drug addiction received treatment was 6.9 percent in 2015, less than half the national average of 14.1 percent.

Speaking during a panel discussion in Kalispell in August, Nasset called heroin “a tremendous problem” in the valley, noting that the drug’s price had dropped 50 percent in the prior 12 months. Over the past year, newspapers throughout Montana have reported rising rates of heroin and meth use.

Still, Kalispell Rep. Randy Brodehl, the Republican Vice-chair of the Appropriations Committee, believes it’s unlikely the Legislature will appropriate more funding for treatment programs during a session likely to see significant belt-tightening in the state budget. In an interview, he also acknowledged the difficulties facing criminal justice officials in his home district, but said declining state revenues will make it difficult, if not impossible, for the Legislature to approve new or expanded programs.

House Minority Leader Jenny Eck, D-Helena, said her caucus is open to jail-diversion programs in general, including expanded drug-treatment opportunities for addicts. As a starting point she pointed to recommendations from the Legislature’s interim Commission on Sentencing, which has drafted several bills to reform the state’s criminal justice system.

“How do we divert people away from prison and jail when really that’s now what they need? We just know that recidivism rates are extremely high when you aren’t dealing with the underlying problem,” Eck said. “These are addiction issues and need to be treated as such.”

PROBLEMS IN the criminal justice system are often intertwined, and the 2017 Legislature might also attempt to address the increasing burden placed on judges in several of Montana’s 22 judicial districts.

An interim legislative commission created last year to study the possibility of judicial redistricting decided against recommending new districts in the state. But it did find that Flathead County’s District 11 was in need of 2.4 additional judges, placing it among the top five overburdened judicial districts.

Given the budget crunch, however, the need for more judges will be just one of many issues left competing for a slice of a shrinking pie.

“Judges’ caseloads are off the charts,” Garner said, but added that adding new judges also incurs other substantial costs, including office space and new clerks. “The unfortunate thing is it’s in a year where we’re challenged on so many other budget issues. ... I appreciate the complaint, but there aren’t a lot of rugs to look under.”

FOR CURRY, the Flathead County Sheriff, the lack of relief from the state is also being compounded by the 2015 Legislature’s passage of a bill limiting reimbursements to counties housing convicted prisoners while they await transfer to state programs or facilities.

Curry says the actual cost per inmate is about 22 percent higher than the state’s payments to the county. Some inmates wait in the county jail for up to six months before being transferred to state custody, and the cost disparity adds up. Earlier this month, about one-fifth of the jail’s inmates were sentenced and waiting to be sent to state facilities, according to jail commander Jenny Root.

“This cost the taxpayers of Flathead County $80,103.66 last fiscal year that the state would have paid without the cap,” Curry said.

Brodehl said he expects the cap to be revisited in 2017, but again noted the current fiscal climate will make it difficult to increase reimbursements.

Nasset said that while the burden doesn’t come out of his budget, the extra cost and backlog of access to state programs is a major issue causing jail overcrowding in Flathead County, which is helping drive an uptick of crime in Kalispell. Officers in the Flathead Valley often come into contact with individuals who need long-term mental health care, but aren’t able to obtain it, he added.

“We have about three different local options,” Nasset said of where his officers can take those in mental distress. None of those facilities are long-term, and most patients only check in for a night or two, according to the chief.

“It’s extremely short-term,” he said. “It’s essentially putting a Band-Aid over a problem that requires a major fix.”

Columbia Falls Rep. Zac Perry, a Democrat entering his second term in the House, hopes the 65th Legislature can expand the alternatives to incarceration as a way to begin tackling Flathead County’s perennial lack of adequate jail space.

“Are we looking at building more prisons or are we taking the philosophy to take more preventative measures?” Perry said. “Right now I feel like we’re in a reactive mode.”

NASSET SAID he hopes legislators will address several other policing issues during the upcoming 90-day session.

He views distracted driving as a serious public-safety issue in the region, but the city shot down his proposal for a ban in city limits. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 46 states have some sort of texting-while-driving ban, but Montana is not one of them. A proposed ban cleared the House during the 2015 session, but did not make it through the Senate.

The police chief also noted that his department received $30,000 in budgeted funds for five to 10 sets of body cameras in August, but unanswered questions remain about what types of information captured by the cameras can be released for public information requests, or whether the footage is protected by privacy laws.

Law enforcement officials note the complexity of criminal justice problems facing the valley, but Nasset ultimately pointed to the county’s overburdened detention center as clear proof that change is needed from the state.

“Our criminal justice system isn’t working right now,” he said. “One part of it is broken. That is the fact that we have no jail space.”

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.