Lawmaker seeks answers on empty Montana jail

BILLINGS – A state lawmaker from Butte has asked corrections officials and representatives of Hardin to explain why a $27 million jail was built in the southern Montana city but now sits empty.

Sen. Steve Gallus, a Democrat, wants the officials to appear Tuesday in Helena before the state Corrections Advisory Council, which he co-chairs.

Hardin officials working with a Texas prison-building consortium last year sought to house out-of-state inmates at the newly built Two Rivers Detention Center.

They were blocked by state Attorney General Mike McGrath, who said state law prohibits county jails from signing contracts for out-of-state prisoners.

Hardin and Two Rivers Authority, the city’s economic development agency, have since filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn McGrath’s opinion.

When it was proposed, the jail was touted as Hardin’s largest economic development project since a sugar factory was built in the 1930s. The city of 3,500 sits on the edge of the Crow Indian reservation in Big Horn County, a community where nearly one in three people lives in poverty – one of the highest rates in the state.

“I feel bad for the people of Hardin and understand that they want jobs,” Gallus said. “But I don’t feel that this was handled appropriately, nor do I think we should base economic development on prison beds.”

Gallus said he also wants to look into other possible uses for the jail.

The jail needs at least 250 inmates to make its opening economically feasible. The state Department of Corrections has said it does not need any more beds for Montana inmates.