HELENA — As Montana looks at building more prison space to house female inmates, state leaders say they’re now focusing on three prospective locations: Deer Lodge, Boulder and Miles City.
Montana Department of Corrections director Eric Strauss gave an update on planning for a new women’s prison during a legislative interim budget committee meeting Wednesday.
DOC initially identified about ten possible locations. The three that rose to the top in the department’s analysis are all on properties that already host correctional facilities: the Montana State Prison campus in Deer Lodge, the Riverside facility in Boulder and the Pine Hills Correctional Facility in Miles City.
Strauss said the other proposed locations haven’t been fully eliminated, but that it made the most sense to pursue expansion on property they already own and are familiar with.
“We have kind of a sense of some of the operational constraints that might exist with an expanded population in terms of staffing, local services, etc.,” he said. “We think the ultimate benefit to us and the taxpayers is that we can get to a solution at something that’s far cheaper than if you were building something from the ground up.”
Strauss said the advantages of Deer Lodge would be the large available property and the chance to share some services with the existing prison facilities. However, he said it might be difficult to add yet another construction project on the campus, on top of the MSP expansion already underway. With that in mind, he said DOC will be specifically taking a closer look at the opportunities in Boulder and Miles City.
Some of the other locations under discussion have included Butte, Anaconda, Billings and Hardin.
Currently, Montana has about 300 beds for female inmates, including 250 at the Montana Women’s Prison in Billings and 50 at the Riverside campus. Leaders say the need for more space has been clear for years. They want to expand capacity, to be able to house at least 400 female inmates.
In the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers approved House Bill 833, which provided $246 million for renovating and building prison facilities – specifically including a new facility for female offenders.
DOC is already planning to renovate another building at Riverside to add another 50 beds. Strauss said bringing in 50 more beds there – for a total of 150 – and maintaining the Women’s Prison in Billings would be a relatively simple way to get to 400. However, he said the department will also consider ways to bring all female inmates to a single location and direct the Billings facility for other uses.
“There's no doubt in my mind that the more capacity that we can create through these dollars, the better off the system will be longer-term,” said Strauss.
DOC leaders say they plan to complete their full report analyzing possible locations for a women’s prison facility by the end of March. Regardless of what that report shows, Strauss says it’s going to be important for them to work closely with local leaders in any community they’re looking at.
“More importantly after we choose one or two sites is to really do some engagement with the community, to make sure that we understand any concerns or constraints that they perceive moving forward with the project – and then really working with A&E [the Architecture and Engineering Division] to start the conversations around what a designed build would look like,” he said.
Rep. Mike Vinton, R-Billings, told Strauss working with the community would be key.
“As everybody's probably aware of the issues with the mental health facility and its location in Laurel, I think lack of communication with the community has created a big stir there,” he said. “So I am pleased to hear you say that, and I encourage you to follow through on that.”
Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda, chairs the Long-Range Planning Interim Budget Committee and sponsored HB 833. He said DOC should be looking at whether they can expand the capacity beyond just 400 beds.
“My thinking is that we have money today, and that as you go forward with this project, you ought to be trying to get as much capacity as you can,” he said. “My belief is, is that we're going to return to more normal times when cash is going to be short and the capacity to come up with money for additional large-scale projects within the state system, regardless of where – that's going to get much more difficult.”
