As Montana lawmakers consider how much to reimburse county jails for holding inmates waiting for a bed at the Montana State Hospital, local officials continue to raise concerns about the cost of housing state inmates.
County and law enforcement representatives during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week spoke in favor of House Bill 643 as a step in the right direction, with some emphasizing the need for a longer-term solution.
Sponsored by Rep. Tracy Sharp, R-Polson, HB 643 would appropriate one-time funding of $6 million from the state to reimburse counties for Department of Health and Human Services inmates. The department currently does not reimburse counties at all for the cost of holding inmates waiting for a bed at the Montana State Hospital or other state facilities.
In 2024, housing those inmates cost Missoula County $808,750, according to the sheriff’s office, which oversees the detention center.
“It’s not just our community. We’re one of many jails experiencing the same thing,” Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen told Montana Free Press. “It’s a financial burden on taxpayers, and inmates are not getting the resources they need in local county jails.”
About 100 people a day are held in county detention centers throughout the state while they await transfer to a state facility, according to the bill’s fiscal note. Based on the past three-year average, the list will increase by about 25% yearly, the document said.
The bill originally required the state Department of Corrections and DPHHS to reimburse counties the actual cost of holding inmates to provide financial relief for counties and stop double-taxing citizens, Sharp said during the Senate committee hearing on Wednesday. The DOC currently pays counties a minimum of $82 or 10% lower than the daily per-inmate rate for Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby, whichever is higher.
Sharp said he amended the bill because the “sticker shock may have been fatal.” The amended bill doesn’t ask the DOC to pay more since the rate was raised last session but seeks DPHHS reimbursement since it currently pays nothing, he said.
Based on an average per person daily cost of $109.09 in the fiscal year 2026 and $110.72 in the fiscal year 2027, as well as the expected increase to the department’s waiting list, the $6 million will run out in 2027, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
Rep. Jane Gillette, R-Three Forks, who helped Sharp amend the bill, told the Senate committee the one-time money is appropriate because the health department is making great strides in making room within the system for people currently waiting in county jails.
Overcrowding in Montana’s prisons is leaving more state inmates waiting in county jails, and Missoula County officials are asking the state to take the inmates it’s responsible for or pay the county for the full cost of keeping them.
“Could we do more? Of course, we could always do more,” she said. “Since this is one-time only, it gives us the ability to, number one, give the department time to basically make room in the current system, and number two, gives us the opportunity to work with the counties to determine if that was an adequate rate or not, yes or no, and how do we move forward.”
Nanette Gilbertson, representing Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and Montana County Attorneys Association, spoke in support of the bill as a good start to address a hole in the system where people who are the state’s responsibility wait in county jails for a long time without a funding mechanism.
Missoula County Attorney Matt Jennings told the committee multiple inmates in the Missoula jail have been waiting more than 300 days for a state hospital bed, including one inmate who received a commitment order 458 days ago. Most DPHHS inmates have to be in a single cell and have extensive medical and mental health needs that have driven up the cost of housing people in the jail, he said.
“This bill goes a long way to helping us recoup the cost of providing that medical and mental health care,” Jennings said. “It’s extremely important we continue to work on other long-term solutions as local governments get some short-term help that this bill will provide.”
Fallon County Undersheriff Nick Eisele said the jail in Baker, east of Miles City, has 14 beds but similar concerns regarding housing state inmates. The county does not have reintegration programs for inmates like state facilities and is paying $134,000 annually in medical and mental health services for inmates to keep them stabilized until placed appropriately, he said.
The Senate committee passed the bill unanimously on Wednesday. In early March, the bill passed the House on a 94-4 vote.
Missoula Sheriff Petersen told MTFP that while he appreciates the Legislature’s attempt to address the issue, the funding is not a long-term solution. It seems lawmakers don’t have an appetite to increase the reimbursement rate for Department of Corrections inmates, he said.
Prior to the last decade, the state reimbursed counties for the actual cost of holding DOC inmates based on a funding formula said Gilbertson with the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.
In 2015, the Legislature capped the DOC reimbursement rate at $69 per day per inmate for the 2017 biennium. The rates stayed the same until 2023 when the Legislature raised the rate to its current $82.80. The increase falls short of the $109 average per person daily detention cost calculated in HB 643’s fiscal analysis and Missoula County’s current rate of $138.
Last year, holding DOC inmates cost Missoula County $335,955, the total difference between the $82.80 rate it was paid and the actual cost, Petersen said. As of earlier this week, the county jail had 31 DOC inmates, he said.
Holding DPHHS inmates cost the county $200,625 for sentenced inmates, $471,750 for inmates awaiting evaluation and $136,375 for inmates awaiting treatment before standing trial, Petersen said. The Missoula jail had 24 DPHHS inmates as of Tuesday.
Along with the cost, it’s a disservice to inmates in need of intensive mental health services to keep them in county jails, Petersen said. The Missoula jail offers some health care but does not have programs on par with the state hospital or prison, he said.
Detention officers supervising more inmates with severe mental health problems often take on work outside their regular scope and are exposed to more stress and potential danger, Petersen said.
The Missoula jail has seen a significant increase in the number of inmates needing to be housed alone, a trend contributing to other inmates sleeping on cell floors, Petersen said.
Last summer, the county and DOC ended their contract for the 144-bed Missoula Assessment and Sanction Center, returning the beds to county use. Petersen said the jail can now appropriately house people after regularly being overcrowded by 30 or more people. The jail is using many of the previously MASC beds as isolation cells, he said.
Missoula County officials want to have a good partnership with the state but “local jurisdictions have been picking up slack where they shouldn’t be,” Petersen said.
In August, the Missoula County commissioners approved a resolution stating that outside agencies are not allowed to hold inmates at the county’s detention center without the county’s prior consent when the agency does not reimburse Missoula County for the actual costs. The county held off on further action to give the state agencies and Legislature time to make changes, Petersen said. Missoula officials recently discussed how to proceed but didn’t come to a definite answer, he said.
The Legislature is considering funding for projects to expand capacity at the prison and state hospital, but those projects do not fully address the shortage of beds. As of Thursday, county jails held 377 state inmates, with 77 awaiting transfer to the state prison, according to the Department of Corrections. More than 600 Montana inmates were in private prisons in Arizona and Mississippi as of Thursday.
Petersen said the DOC’s plans to expand the state prison in Deer Lodge and build a new women’s prison are a step in the right direction but will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are years out.
“It is a huge financial fix, and it’s got to come from the Legislature,” he said. “I’m all for being fiscally responsible, but we got to solve this. Every year they wait, prices go up. … Criminal justice costs money, but we have to prioritize it for the good of the citizens.”
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org.
