Sheriffs: State prisoners a burden on local jails

Taxpayers in Flathead County are paying about $80,000 per year to house the state’s prisoners in its “woefully overcrowded” jail, Sheriff Chuck Curry told a panel of lawmakers in Helena on Thursday.

Curry joined other county sheriffs and commissioners from across Montana to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in favor of legislation to force the Department of Corrections to pay counties the full cost of housing state prisoners.

“Flathead County, to be quite honest, doesn’t want the state prisoners,” Curry said. “We need our beds for our prisoners, and our pre-sentence felons that we currently don’t have room for.”

The Department of Corrections is responsible for housing criminals once they are sentenced to prison or other programs within the department. But county jails frequently house prison inmates for months while they await placement within the department.

In 2015, the Legislature capped the department’s reimbursements to counties for housing state prisoners at $69 per day. Curry said the actual cost for the Flathead County Detention Center is $84 per day, leaving county taxpayers to pick up the difference.

“In Flathead County, we levy our maximum amount of [tax] mills,” he added. “In order to house state prisoners — that I don’t want — I have to take money away from other law enforcement services.”

Sheriffs from other large counties also took to the lectern to speak in favor of the bill. Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder said the unmet costs topped $120,000 last year, and Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said when including the costs of transporting and providing required healthcare costs to state prisoners, his office shells out $123 per day, per inmate.

The bill’s proponents also noted that state prisoners tend to be more violent, creating dangerous situations for staff and other inmates in overcrowded jails.

House Bill 230, sponsored by Rep. Donald Jones, R-Billings, would remove the cap on those reimbursements to counties. The payments would instead be based on the jail’s staff salaries and benefits, operating costs, contracted services, depreciation of equipment and the building itself.

“Counties are stepping up to the plate, saying, ‘We will house these prisoners,’” Jones said. “And the state is saying, ‘Good, but we’re not going to pay you what it costs to actually do it.”

No one spoke in opposition to the bill, but several committee members questioned how the state would be impacted by payments to higher-cost county jails.

“We want a solution that doesn’t shift the cost to local folks, but we also want to be sure that everybody’s being prudent,” said Rep. Kathy Kelker, D-Billings. “So I’m wondering about a cap and its necessity in terms of a particular county not getting completely out of line.”

Jones said he would consider a higher cap, but stressed that it needs to be “reasonable” relative to the counties’ actual costs.

Montana State Prison’s per-prisoner cost is about $150 each day, said Dave Galt of the Montana Sheriff’s and Peace Officer’s Association. But he added that includes the cost of additional services the prison provides.

In an interview after the hearing, committee chair Rep. Alan Doane, R-Bloomfield, said he expects the bill to be amended before the committee acts on it.

He said a vote will likely take place next Wednesday or Friday.

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