Montana’s Department of Corrections (DOC) is considering swapping out the elderly male inmates of Boulder’s Riverside detention center for a cohort of young mother prisoners.
“The department is evaluating the Riverside facility’s role in Montana’s correctional structure and how it would most benefit our critically overcapacity prison system,” DOC Director Brian Gootkin said in a statement. “That may involve a shift in the population living at that facility.”
The DOC said it is unable to provide details until its decision is final. But Jefferson County Commissioner Cory Kirsch revealed at a public meeting in Boulder last week that DOC officials had told him the incoming inmates could be younger female prisoners who have children.
Speaking to The Monitor, Kirsch described the inmate switch as “probable.” This would be the second change in the Riverside facility’s population in a handful of years. Prior to 2020, the unit, which has a 25-bed capacity, housed female prisoners who had suffered abuse.
Boulder, where the DOC owns over 800 acres of property, also is among the locations being considered for a new women’s prison, in addition to Butte, Deer Lodge, and Yellowstone County. A state bill appropriating $250 million to build the new facility, sponsored by Rep. John Fitzpatrick, was passed by the House last month and was scheduled to start hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee this week.
Montana’s women prison population has tripled since 2000, from roughly 150 to 450, though the state’s lone women’s prison, in Billings, has a capacity of 250 inmates.
The Department of Corrections gave no timetable for its decision on the inmate population at the Riverside facility or the prisoner transfers.
