They lowered the castle's drawbridge on Wednesday morning, and something good
happened.
Toys poured out. And games.
They came out in bunches and will be delivered to underprivileged children for
Christmas. This was over on Lee Avenue
in that castle-looking building. You know where that is? The one with the
turrets just off Airport Road in southeast Bismarck.
It's the home of the Bismarck Transition Center, a halfway house for convicted
felons. It appears some of them, at least, have truly embraced the idea of
making the transition from incarceration back into the community. Several
residents at the center have used their own money to buy toys for kids whose
stockings might otherwise have been a little light this year.
"It's good to give something back to the community," said resident Cliff Eaton,
who donated a drawing set.
Eaton and fellow residents Tony Eley and Wesley Miller - all of whom are serving
sentences on drug charges - helped to load several bags full of toys into Shari
Doe's SUV on Wednesday. Doe and Barbara Messmer, from Burleigh County Social
Services, will distribute the presents to children who need a little sunshine.
"This is such a great program," Doe said. "There are a lot of people out there
benefiting from the generosity of this community."
Jessica Messmer, a work-release coordinator for the transition center, is
running the gift drive. The 3-year-old event is a popular one among staff and
residents, she said.
"Some of (the residents) who have been here before started asking me about it in
November," Messmer said. "I've had a lot of guys tell me they know what it's
like to be locked up at Christmas and not be able to buy their kids gifts. They
wanted to help."
The residents, who have jobs either at the center or out in the community, use
their own money to buy gifts. Many of them still have fines and restitution to
pay, but they work with their case managers to see if they have room in their
budgets to give a little bit. One resident had a good amount of wiggle room this
month, and donated $100, Messmer said.
Eley, who said he grew up in a house with 17 siblings, knows what it's like to
be skipped over at Christmas.
"I just wanted to donate, so hopefully a kid will get something I never got," he
said.
Miller agreed with Eaton that it's nice to be able to give something back to the
community.
"It's for the kids," Miller said. "Kids need presents at Christmas."
It's a good lesson that worthwhile community service doesn't have to be ordered
by a judge.
When Michael Purington and his band the Messengers play for audiences made up of long-term recovery people it’s like playing with a built-in laugh track.
They recognize the situations depicted in the songs. They know the language. They’ve been there and done it, Purington explained.
Michael and the Messengers were in Glendive Monday for performances at WATCh East in the morning and at Dawson Community College in the evening. The DCC performance was part of the freshman orientation program and was a new experience for the band which has performed on “sobriety cruises” and for many groups of recovering alcoholics.
“Our aim is to bring recovery music into schools, clinics, rehabs, jails and any other facilities where alcoholics suffer from their disease. We also hope to help educate potential alcoholics about the pitfalls that lie in wait,” Purington said.
Most country musicians write and sing about drinking. Purington writes and sings about not drinking. When he recorded his first CD in 2001, he could find only one other CD with recovery music. Now an Internet search for alcoholism recovery music returns over one million links.
According to his Web site, www.QuitDrinkin.com, “The message is simple; quit drinking and learn to live sober. Often life is at stake. Alcoholism is a fatal disease, and the message saves lives.”
Purington has been sober since 1993, but he labels himself a “multi-retread.” He quit drinking numerous times before finally becoming involved in a recovery program, starting to attend meetings regularly and working with other recovering alcoholics to maintain his sobriety.
Music was always an important part of his life. At 19 he began playing professionally and started The Lost Highway Band in 1974. The band toured the western United States and Canada and performed with musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, B.B. King and George Thorogood.
When the band broke up, Purington quit writing music and began drinking heavily until a girlfriend encouraged him to get into a recovery program. He stayed sober for four-and-a-half years. He was not drinking but also not going to meetings, not talking to anyone about his alcoholism and not dealing with issues, he said
He started drinking again – trying to escape the reality of life – until he finally reached the point where he started asking for help and began the journey back to sobriety. When he was nine months sober he wrote his first sobriety song but didn’t write another for five years when he wrote, “I think I’ll Quit Drinkin’ Today” and “Gloom, Doom, 7-Up & Jesus.” He showed them to a good friend who asked him to put them on a cassette for him. Soon he found himself writing more tunes.
“They were piling up, like waifs at the door saying, ‘Hi. We’ve come to stay at your house.’ I had nothing to feed them, but I didn’t mind them hanging around. They were pleasant little things,” he said.
Two of his friends agreed to finance a full-band, 12-song CD so he pulled some of his musician friends together and went to work. People in his home town of Missoula bought it, but he didn’t know how to find a larger market until he discovered a woman who also had a recovery CD. With her help he went online with his music.
Now he has placed his CDs in recovery stores in 30 states but has been told they are actually available in all 50 states. He has received orders from Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Scotland, Denmark and Canada.
His first CD, “I Think I’ll Quit Drinkin’ Today” was all about “The Guy,” a character who finally decides maybe he’s got a drinking problem and needs to take action about his situation. The second, “People With No Last Names” is about all those who are there waiting when The Guy decides to get sober. Each song represents a different character. Together they form a whole picture of G.O.D. - The Group of Drunks, he explained.
For his latest CD, “Promises: Demons and Redemption in Alcoholism Recovery,” Purington wrote over 300 songs exploring specific problems and solutions in sobriety. “Most of these songs sort of wrote themselves; I just tried to keep a good pen handy,” he said.
Ordering information from the CDs and more information about recovery music is available at the Web site: www.QuitDrinkin.com.
Marcie Conmy-Fisher, director of the Transition Center, 2001 Lee Ave., said the facility now has 155 beds, and the staff has grown from 30 employees to 50.
The first residents were taken to the new part of the center on April 28, and the construction was completed on June 14, she said.
The Transition Center works to ease selected male prisoners back into the community and to relieve the overcrowding conditions in the prison system, Conmy-Fisher said.
The prisoners cannot be sex offenders or have excessively violent backgrounds to be accepted, she said.
The Transition Center expanded because the state Department of Corrections put out a request for an assessment center, Conmy-Fisher said.
The assessment center will evaluate men who are out on parole or probation and who have violated the conditions of their release, she said. Rather than go through the court system and end up back in prison, qualified men can be placed in the Transition Center.
The Transition Center opened in August 2002. Residents are required to find employment, stick to a budget and do community service. They are gradually allowed leisure time to develop hobbies and can visit the library up to three times per week, Conmy-Fisher said.
Residents also receive drug and alcohol treatment, she said.
"I would say the majority of our guys -- their crimes have been because of drugs and alcohol," she said.
The Montana Department of Corrections has far-reaching economic impacts in Butte-Silver Bow and adjacent counties.
Mike Ferriter, a
Butte native, recently took the helm of the sprawling agency, replacing Bill
Slaughter, who resigned. Ferriter, 51, has been working in corrections since
1977.
Butte’s adjacency to the state prison in Deer Lodge has left the impression that
Butte is a dumping ground for the majority of the paroled inmates. And there’s
concerns of locating the pre-release center in Uptown Butte has affected other
economic development.
Not so, according to Ferriter and his agency spokesman, Bob Anez.
Here’s a few facts as of the end of June 2006:
Economic, Social impacts
The prison is at
or near capacity, said Ferriter, and about 180 men and women are waiting in
county jails to be transferred to the prison.
Nearly all of the crimes committed are tied to drugs, he said.
“It’s always drugs. Alcohol is the gateway drug for juveniles. Meth is the drug
of choice for adults,” he said. “And a higher percentage of women are caught up
in meth.” It points to the need for more early intervention. Butte’s chemical
dependency program is a good start but has a long waiting list. Lewistown will
soon see a program dedicated to meth via the Community, Counseling and
Correctional Services, based in Butte.
Also, Ferriter
says controls are in place to keep the most dangerous and the sex offenders out
of Butte. The pre-release center does not take such offenders.
“The thing about pre-release centers is that you have an instant workforce for
jobs no one else can be called on to do, at all hours of the day,” Ferriter
said.
CCCS operates several programs in the area. The Butte Pre-release Center employs
68 people with an annual payroll of $2.3 million. This program has spent $2.8
million on buying and improving property in Uptown Butte since 1983. It spent
$750,477 on local goods and services last fiscal year.
Women’s Transitional Center employs 36 full-time employees with a payroll of
$950,774.
Connections Corrections has spent $460,426 on property purchase and improvement
and spent $633,21 on goods and services last year. It has 28 employees with a
payroll of $939,200.
WATCh program spent $633,200 on goods and services last year, and has 63
employees with a payroll of $2.4 million annually.
RYO juvenile correctional facility (at Galen, for federal offenders) has spent
$7.8 million on property purchases and improvements since 2002. It spends almost
$649,000 annually to buy goods and services, employs 78 people and has an annual
payroll of $2.7 million.
START at Warm Springs has spent $303,500 on goods and services since Dec. 1. It
employs 34 staff with an annualized payroll of $1.5 million.
In total, the corporation has 407 employees with total payroll of $11 million.
County halfway house gives former criminals chance to volunteer
Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 6/16/06
Since his 18th birthday, Jerimia Culbertson has been homeless, jailed or addicted to meth.
He's lived in his pickup truck, crashed on friend's couches and slept in abandoned cars. He's been in and out of Gallatin County's jail on drug charges, unable to hold a job.
Meth and alcohol were his escapes.
Four years after spiraling downhill, Culbertson is giving back to society. The 22-year-old is one of 36 former criminals in Gallatin County's halfway house required to volunteer in the community.
Culbertson cleans parks, gathers litter around the county dump and helps price items at The Salvation Army. If he doesn't complete a total of 65hours of community service during his six-month residency, he can't leave the halfway house.
"It's not bad," he said, taking a break from volunteering Thursday at The Salvation Army. "It's actually quite nice."
Like other residents of the halfway house on South 16th Avenue, he is sober and trying to get his life on track. He moved into the house after being released from jail. In addition to volunteering, he has a job working construction and attends counseling sessions at night.
"I actually have a roof over my head that doesn't involve jail," Culbertson said.
Serving at places like The Salvation Army allows him to interact with people who are different from the men in jail and the halfway house. That has helped him adjust to normal life. He can become part of something good, trying to make up for his mistakes.
"We're trying to reintroduce them into society," said Pat Donath, who coordinates the service projects. "This is their community, too."
Since the halfway house opened in December, residents have collectively completed 678 hours of community service, Program Director Melissa Kelly said. They are unsupervised, although spot checks are conducted regularly to ensure they're on task.
Despite the men having criminal records, many organizations offer projects for the residents.
"I've never had any problem with them," said Kristi Ping, a supervisor at The Salvation Army. "As long as they're polite, that's all that matters."
They're hard workers, she said, and their help is appreciated. They empty the trash, sort items and straighten the sales floor. About 25 percent of her volunteers come from the halfway house.
"We pretty much need all the help we can get," Ping said.
Culbertson will continue doing service projects for the next six months while living in the halfway house. When he's released, his experiences may benefit him.
He hopes to continue working construction, rent an apartment, buy a car and stay out of trouble. He's unsure whether he'll continue his volunteer work.
"I've been homeless and out of the circle for so long," Culbertson said. "I¹m going to enjoy this experience."
As the methamphetamine epidemic continues to ravage the country, some states are responding with a new innovation: "meth prisons" dedicated exclusively to inmates addicted to the drug. The Montana Department of Corrections just approved construction of two of them -- an 80-inmate unit for men and a 40-inmate unit for women. Illinois, which already had a two-year-old drug prison that handles a variety of addictions, plans to open two meth-specific facilities by July 2007; each one will house 200 male inmates.
By placing meth users in intensive treatment programs and isolating them form convicts who can teach them new criminal skills (like check forging), state officials hope to reduce high recidivism rates among addicts. "Just being in jail isn't going to fix this," says Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. "Jail doesn't get the demons out."
The meth prisons are aimed not just at drug dealers and manufacturers, but also at those who commit crimes, like robberies, to feed their addictions. While the Illinois program will be voluntary for offenders, the law in Montana will authorize judges to order prisoners to serve time in a meth facility. Treatment will include group counseling, individual therapy and seminars on work, family and life skills. In Montana, family visits won't be permitted until inmates are deemed ready. Upon their release, case managers will monitor parolees to ensure that they continue to attend treatment programs.
Similar approaches appear to be working elsewhere. In Indiana, where corrections official have set up meth units within four regular prisons in the past year, 66 members of the first graduating class were released about six months ago; so far, none have committed another offense. In Illinois, recidivism among inmates release from the drug prison is 50 percent less than among a comparable group in the regular prisons. "It will take a few years for us to know whether this (new) strategy works," says Jeremy Travis of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who praises the states' efforts. Communities, he says, desperately need "new response to a profoundly serious problem that threatens pubic safety and public health.
The top corrections official in Montana told a large and enthusiastic crowd at the Yogo Inn on Tuesday an 80-bed methamphetamine treatment center is coming to Lewistown.
The long awaited announcement from Montana Department of Corrections Director Bill Slaughter was greeted with loud applause. As Fergus County Port Authority Chairman John Hertel put it, the Port Authority ad Lewistown finally landed a big one.
Mike Thatcher, chief executive officer of the Butte-based firm that will build and operate the center, said the project will cost $9.2 million and should be in operation by next spring. He said the center will require 44 full-time employees, will have a $1.8 million payroll and purchases will be made largely in Lewistown.
Slaughter described the center as "on the leading edge, not just for Montana but for the entire country."
The DOC director praised Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-Mont.) for having the courage to "think outside the box and support new ways of treating addicted people." Describing himself as a Schweitzer Republican, Slaughter praised the governor's concern for public safety.
Several speakers, including Slaughter and Thatcher, praised Rep. Jim Peterson (R-Buffalo), who introduced the legislation allowing the DOC to build a meth treatment center. Peterson also lead the battle to fund it and shepherded the authorization bill through the difficult legislative process.
"This is a pretty satisfying day for me," said Peterson. He reminded several in the audience that the road to Tuesday's announcement began almost three years ago at a Port Authority meeting. At that time, Lewistown was competing for an adult alcohol addiction treatment center that eventually went to Glendive.
So the Port Authority changed to a meth treatment center when it learned the DOC also was looking for a place to put such a center. Peterson pushed the bill through the Legislature not knowing for sure that it would come to Lewistown, Slaughter said.
It began as a 40-bed pilot project, Peterson said, but when problems with meth addiction grew in Montana, it became apparent a larger facility is needed. It grew to a 120-bed project with 80 beds for male addicts to be located in Lewistown and 40 beds for females in Boulder.
"This is the first facility of its kind in America," Peterson said. "We should be extremely proud of this. Judges testified in favor if it; low enforcement testified in favor of it."
However, it was not easy getting the proposal through the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, Peterson said. He said the first answer he got was "no." Eventually, the project was funded through the DOC's special needs budget, the Buffalo representative said.
"It was my honor to help with the projects and I believe it ended up like it is because of you-- because of the support Lewistown gave it. You were solidly behind the project. It is unusual for a community to welcome a project like this," Peterson said.
Slaughter said the state no longer is building prison beds. More and more it is building centers to treat individuals who can be returned to society as productive citizens. He said two alcohol addiction centers in the state, at Warm Springs and Glendive, have an 86 percent success rate.
"This is a fresh approach to corrections in Montana," said Slaughter. We warned, however, there is no silver bullet for meth treatment. He said he hopes it saves the taxpayers' money, "but even more importantly we hope it will save lives."
Community, Counseling, and Correctional Services, Inc., the Butte firm that will build and operate the center, has a great track record with the DOC, Slaughter said. The firm operates several other facilities around the state for the DOC.
He noted the Lewistown center will treat addicts for nine months and then they will go to pre-release centers elsewhere for six months. This is an alternative to spending three or more years in prison. The legislation allows judges to sentence addicts directly to the Lewistown center, Slaughter said.
"We owe a great debt to this community. It welcomed us with open arms. It's been an amazing thing to see," Slaughter said.
That was a theme running through all of the speeches at the announcement ceremony Tuesday. Speakers were amazed at the support given the project from the beginning. In other communities, that has not been the case for most correctional facilities.
Lewistown is the only contender for a male methamphetamine treatment center after the scoring of three proposals in Helena on Thursday. The other two proposals, from Boulder and Billings, are for women's treatment centers.
As a result of the scoring, Lewistown will get an 80-bed male meth treatment center and Boulder will get a 40-bed women's treatment center, if there are no glitches, according to Bob Anez, Montana Department of Corrections spokesman.
The scoring was done at a public meeting of the DOC evaluation committee. This scoring "dictates who gets the contracts barring any unforeseen glitches," Anez said.
Bill Slaughter, DOC director, will be in Lewistown Tuesday to make the selection official. The announcement will be made at a meeting at noon in the Yogo Inn, Anez said.
Lewistown came close to getting a combined male-female meth treatment center. The DOC's six-member evaluation committee gave Lewistown 1,729 votes for a combined facility. A female-only facility in Boulder got 1,732 votes, Anez said.
Lewistown, which had no competition for a male facility, received 1,688 votes. Mike Thatcher, chief executive officer of Community, Counseling and Correctional Services Inc., the Butte-based firm proposing to build the meth treatment center here, said he's still hoping to get a 120-bed male-female facility here.
Thatcher said he expects Slaughter will make that decision by Tuesday.
John Hertel, chairman of the Fergus County Port Authority, the organization which has spearheaded the proposal to construct a meth treatment center here, said Slaughter will be here for the Tuesday noon meeting and Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-Mont.) has been invited.
"This is a real shot of adrenalin," said Hertel. "We needed something badly. We have not been successful in our previous efforts even though we worked on some very good projects."
Hertel referred to the Port Authority's recent history. It is an economic development agency, but it has ot been successful in developing new businesses or projects to help the local economy. He said this is the big one and should assure everyone that the Port Authority's efforts have not been in vain.
Methamphetamine treatment prisons will likely be built in Boulder and Lewistown within the next year, after a Department of Corrections selection committee wrapped up its final review of the proposals Thursday.
The six-person committee gave its highest scores to a 40-bed women’s meth prison in Boulder proposed by Boyd Andrew Community Services of Helena, and an 80-bed men’s facility in Lewistown offered by Community, Counseling and Correctional Services Inc. of Butte.
A final recommendation will be sent to corrections Director Bill Slaughter, who is expected to make a decision next Tuesday. ‘‘We’re cautiously optimistic we will receive at least some piece of this,’’ said Mike Thatcher, chief executive officer of CCCS. ‘‘We’re excited.’’
The Boyd Andrew proposal scored the highest out of four submitted bids, beating out proposals for a 40-bed women’s facility in Billings and a combined 120-bed prison for men and women in Lewistown also submitted by CCCS.
The men’s prison in Lewistown was selected by
default after that, since it was the only bid for a
separate men’s facility submitted to the committee.
David Armstrong, administrator of Alternatives Inc.
of Billings, said afterward he was disappointed his
company wasn’t in the running, but called the
competition ‘‘kind of grueling’’ and praised the
other proposals.
"I hope this is just the start,’’ he said. ‘‘I know we need a lot more (prison) beds like this in the state.’’
The 2005 Legislature approved a bill giving corrections officials the freedom, but not the money, to contract for some kind of meth treatment prison. Lawmakers suggested a 40-bed facility, although corrections officials said they wanted to triple the size of the project because meth is such a problem in Montana.
The Boulder prison, if approved, would cost about $1.8 million a year to operate at $125 per inmate, while the Lewistown men’s facility would cost about $3.4 million annually, or $118 an inmate, department figures show.
Those figures do not include construction costs.
Boyd Andrew estimates its facility will open by next January and cost $5.3 million to build. An estimated construction cost for the CCCS prison was not available Thursday, but the company hopes to open the facility by next April.
The lockdown prisons are meant for repeat offenders, who would undergo nine months of treatment followed by six months in a prerelease center and continued counseling after that.
The savings to the state will be substantial. Currently, it costs $50,371 to house a male meth offender in prison for two years. Nine months of treatment at the men’s meth prison proposed by CCCS would cost $27,540, department spokesman Bob Anez said.
The state would save about $20,000 going the treatment route for women offenders, he said.
It is about time someone stands up and recognizes the contribution that CCCS and Mike Thatcher have made to Butte.
If it weren’t for Mike Thatcher and CCCS, my family and I would no longer be living in Butte. The critics of CCCS should go and check the records of displaced MRI workers, laid-off Montana Power and Touch America employees who stayed in Butte because of the effort of Mike Thatcher and the CCCS corporation to get them jobs.
Thatcher is a Butte guy and wears it proudly on his sleeve even though every time he tries to bring more business to Butte he gets blasted because of CCCS being in corrections.
There are many times that Thatcher could have pulled up stakes from Butte and the hundreds of jobs that have been created in Butte, Anaconda and Deer Lodge area to a more corrections friendly town, but he has remained true to Butte.
I stayed with CCCS for less than one year and was lucky enough to get on with the school district as a teacher. You would think a guy who made it a point to hire me and keep me in Butte would be mad about leaving in less than a year. Mike took me to lunch, thanked me for my service to CCCS and wished me the best at the school district and told me if I ever needed a job again let him know.
Now people are complaining that there are no jobs for the teenagers in town because all of the pre-release people are taking the jobs. The businesses are hiring pre-release people because they can not get people to come in and do the service-related jobs that they offer. There are plenty of jobs out there if a person is willing to work including our teenagers.
Give Thatcher and CCCS some credit to their contribution to this community. If there is a business in Butte that gives back more to Butte than CCCS, I would like to see it.
And by the way, they do not let sex offenders into the pre-release center, just for the public information.
J.P. Gallagher
2924 State St.
Butte
Ruling: Meth center does not need
review
The Associated Press, 3/01/06
The state does not need to undergo privatization review before awarding a contract for a proposed privately run methamphetamine treatment prison, Attorney General Mike McGrath ruled Tuesday.
The Department of Corrections argued that the
treatment prison is a new program, wasn’t replacing
services already offered by the Department of
Corrections, and thus was not subject to the 2005
privatization review.
A privatization review would have set back
department plans to award a contract for the private
treatment prison in mid-March. The agency now
remains on schedule to have it open next year, said
Corrections spokesman Bob Anez.
McGrath noted that the Legislature required the
agency to contract with a private nonprofit to run
the prison.
The attorney general’s opinion carries the weight of
law unless overturned by a court or legislative
action.
MEA-MFT, a union whose membership includes state
employees, had argued that the meth facility
duplicates drug treatment programs already
administered by the state and is subject to a review
for privatizing those services.
The union had a gentleman’s agreement that it would
abide by McGrath’s opinion and won’t purse the
matter further in court, said Eric Feaver, president
of MEA-MFT.
CCCS to
house federal inmates
But
it's not expanding
Montana Standard,
3/1/06
The federal government has agreed to pay Community Counseling & Correctional Services to house up to 15 federal prisoners a day in Uptown Butte.
But the Federal Bureau of Prisons contract does not
mean CCCS, 68 W. Broadway, is expanding.
“It’s still within the total amount of beds that we
have here,” CEO Mike Thatcher said. “We’re not
adding anymore buildings” or beds.
The contract was approved Jan. 30 amid some discord
Uptown, where about 85 people signed a petition
against CCCS’ adding federal prisoners. CCCS is a
private corrections company with campuses in Butte,
Warm Springs, Galen and elsewhere.
“I feel like (CCCS) has done some harm in the Uptown
area,” said Ristene Hall, who owns the Park Street
Gym. “There are people who don’t come Uptown because
they are here.” Hall circulated the petition in late
2005, after CCCS applied for renewal of a federal
contract, and submitted it to the Council of
Commissioners Feb. 10. She said a four-person
committee asked her to gather signatures, but would
not identify its members.
The petition was misguided, Thatcher said, because
CCCS is not trying to add prisoners. Rather, it
wanted more federal prisoners to fill existing beds.
“I felt there was some intent to misinform people,”
he said.
CCCS’ contracts with the state and federal
governments dictate how many prisoners it can accept
to fill its 118 beds.
The state pays CCCS to take up to 112. Under the new
contract, the federal government will pay CCCS to
take up to 15 — five more than the previous contract
allowed, he said.
“We don’t have to take all 15, but let’s just say
that we had empty state beds ...” Thatcher said.
Several petition signers said they had believed CCCS
was adding to its total prisoners.
And the mention of expansion concerned some Uptown,
who have seen CCCS grow from 40 prisoners since its
inception.
“It’s a good employer, but we were concerned that
the program is getting big enough for the area,”
businessman Ernie Richards said.
But if CCCS expands, Thatcher said, it will not be
in Uptown Butte. The only change here is a remodel
allowing more space for existing operations.
“We’re not going to run out there and buy another
building and put 100 bodies in here,” he said.
WATCh East has been a good
addition
Glendive Ranger
Review,
2/12/06
It has been one year since WATCh East opened its doors in Glendive. The year preceding the opening was a tumultuous one. Losing Eastmont was difficult. The prospect of another Department of Corrections' facility in Glendive made some residents anxious.
There were lots of questions and, over time, most of those were addressed.
Once all of the opening hoopla was finished, WATCh East was quiet, very quiet. There have been no faculty family members running amuck. Their visiting relatives haven't caused problems in Glendive, that we know of at least. With the exception of the rattlesnake and mountain lion issues, WATCh East really hasn't made news on our pages most of the year. That's not a bad thing.
The unknown of welcoming a DOC treatment facility
into our back yards, closer to some than others of
course, was a risk. But now we're glad it's
here. WATCh East is a good neighbor.
The facility offers programs for felony DUI
offenders, individuals who have four or more
offenses.
Back to What's New
WATCh East: Initial
concerns unfounded
Glendive Ranger
Review,
2/12/06
A year after opening its doors, the state Department
of Corrections' alcohol treatment facility, WATCh
East, hasn't created the problems residents in the
area were initially worried about.
The facility offers programs for felony DUI
offenders, individuals who have four or more
offenses.
David Svenvold, a Hillcrest resident who lives about
a block from the facility and had expressed concern
when the facility was proposed, said the
first year of the facility has gone smoothly. "It's
like the place isn't even there. It's gone off
without a hitch, in my opinion," David Svenvold
said. "It's been fine."
Dave Dorwart, a member of the work committee that
initially handled issues relating to the facility,
said he feels ambivalent about it. He said putting
the facility in never bothered him; his primary
concern was having administrative rules to limit the
type of facility and the types of inmates
who could be put in there in the future. Dorwart
said he has never even seen a resident of the
alcohol treatment facility.
Homeowners in the Hillcrest and Georgetown areas
were worried the presence of the facility would
cause property values to decrease.
Tami Freas, sales associate with Montana East
Realty, said she has not seen a reduction in
property values in that area. She doesn't think the
facility
has had any effect, and prices for houses in that
area have been good and the homes are selling
quickly, she said. They've had the same kind of
increase as everyone else has in the last 18 months,
Freas concluded.
Joe Fabian, a broker with Realty One, said realtors
there haven't seen a reduction in property values in
any area of town, including the Hillcrest/
Georgetown area.
The presence of WATCh East hasn't affected any of
the buyers he has shown homes to in that area, he
said. "We're looking forward to continuing a good
relationship with (WATCh East)," Fabian noted.
Although the Glendive Police Department has handled
a few calls at the facility, Chief Alan Michaels
said the incidents turned out to be "minor,
very minor."
"The program has done very well from what I can
see," Michaels said. "There has not been any problem
at all."
County Attorney Scott Herring said to date he hasn't
had to handle any cases relating to residents of the
WATCh East facility.
The police have come to the facility on two
occasions to transport family members to jail and
two other times, said Deb Dion, program coordinator.
The
two other times related to incidents involving
mountain lion sightings. They've also come out to
serve legal papers, such as for divorce, on family
members, she added.
Occasionally, when a family member violates the
rules, a hearing has to be held with the probation
officer at the facility, Dion explained. Depending
on the result of the hearing, the probation officer
may sanction the family member and require them to
spend time in jail. Typically, the jail time
served varies from two to 15 days.
When a family member is taken to jail, it is
required that the staff member who transports the
family member is of the same gender. There have been
a
couple of occasions when there hasn't been staff
available to transport the family member to the jail
and the police officers have come out to pick the
person up, Dion said.
Another issue of concern from Glendive residents was
who would pay for the times a non Dawson County
resident may spend in jail.
Dion said the Department of Corrections pays for the
time the family member spends in jail. Once the
person completes the program, he or she is required
to reimburse the DOC at a rate of $60 per day, she
added.
First year of WATCh East a
success
Glendive Ranger
Review,
2/12/06
WATCh East opened Jan. 31, 2005 with 39 family
members who came from the program in Warm Springs.
They had all been screened by the local screening
committee, program coordinator Deb Dion said. Within
the first week an additional person was accepted to
the program, bringing the number of family
residents to 40, which is capacity for the building.
Dion said they've stayed at capacity ever since.
The first preference for the program is for women,
then people from eastern Montana and then for people
from the rest of the state.
About 20 people from eastern Montana have gone
through and completed the program, Dion said.
Thirty-five women from all over Montana have
completed
the program.
Through the end of January 2006, there have been 76
people eligible to participate in the program. Of
that number, three have transferred to WATCh
West in Warm Springs, two have voluntarily resigned
and gone to jail. "The program is hard and it's a
lot easier to sit in jail and do your time," Dion
said.
Also, there was a disciplinary hearing for a female
family member, who was sent to Montana Women's Prison
to complete her sentence. Dion said she had
violated rules and as result of a hearing with the
probation officer was sent to MWP. That incident was
when the facility first opened and administration
wanted to send a very strong message, Dion said.
There have been 70 people who have completed the
program and there is data available on 69 of them.
Nine people, or 13 percent of those who have
completed the program, are not in compliance with
all aspects of their their probation. The type of
noncompliance varies, Dion said, from not working
and
not attending Alcoholics Anonymous, to being caught
in a casino or drinking.
Eighty-seven percent, or 59 people, are in
compliance with their probation.
Only one person who has completed the program has
re-offended and gotten another DUI. That works out to
less than 1 percent for the first year, Dion
noted.
As part of commemorating the first year for the new
facility, Dion said they've redesigned the coin
given to family members to commemorate
completion of the program. The coin family members
graduating in the first year receive is the same one
given to graduates at the WATCh West facility.
The new coin will reflect the Phoenix family of the
WATCh East program, Dion explained.
A new coin will be sent to everyone who has already
graduated and is in compliance with their probation.
There have been some new additions to the program
including computers from Dawson Community College
which allow family members to work on resumes. It
is a requirement to leave the program with a
professional resume, so they all learn how to do
that, Dion said. Deb Mooer from DCC is teaching life
skills classes at the facility which highlight
healthy lifestyles and activities that don't involve
drinking. "The college has been great," Dion said.
DCC also sends an instructor so family members can
work on their GEDs.
"We also make sure that they have social security
cards and identification," Dion said. Family members
are required to find work very quickly after
graduation and without the documents they could get
out of compliance right away.
The Dawson County Healthy Communities Coalition
received a grant and held a class, taught by Ken
Corpi, for family members on nurturing parents.
Family members are still making quilts to donate.
Right now, they're making smaller quilts to give to
a shelter for domestic violence victims.
Back to What's New
Attorney general to rule on law, as corrections weighs four proposals, including one from
Butte’s CCCS
Associated Press/Montana Standard, 2/08/06
The state is seeking Attorney General Mike McGrath’s opinion on whether it needs to follow a new set of laws in awarding a private contract for a proposed methamphetamine treatment prison, officials said Tuesday.
At issue is whether the treatment prison, slated to open next year, is a new program or whether it’s replacing services already provided by the Department of Corrections.
MEA-MFT, a union whose membership includes state employees, argues the meth facility duplicates drug treatment programs already administered by the state and is subject to new statutes on the privatization of state services.
The statutes, passed by the 2005 Legislature, require the affected agency to develop a privatization plan. The plan is subject to a public hearing and must be approved by the governor and the Legislative Audit Committee.
‘‘It gives a forum for folks like us to argue whether privatization is appropriate,’’ MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver said.
Corrections officials argue the proposed meth prison is a new program and, therefore, not subject to the new laws.
‘‘We feel we are on very firm legal ground,’’ in issuing a request for proposals, said department spokesman Bob Anez.
The department is currently weighing four proposals for the lockdown prison in three cities — Billings, Boulder and Lewistown. Offenders would undergo nine months of treatment, followed by six months in a prerelease center and continued counseling after that.
In a letter Monday, Feaver told corrections officials the union had filed a complaint in District Court in Helena over the issue.
Sarah Elliott, spokeswoman for Gov. Brian Schweitzer, said Tuesday the state agreed to seek an opinion from McGrath instead. His opinion carries the weight of law unless overturned by a court or legislativeaction.
Feaver also suggested the state delay taking action on the proposed contract until the legal issues are resolved, although an attorney for the Corrections Department told a committee evaluating the proposals to carry on.
‘‘I believe we have our mandate from the Legislature and we will follow that until the courts tell us tostop,’’ said Diane Koch, the agency’s chief legal counsel.
The 2005 Legislature approved a bill giving corrections officials the freedom, but not the money, to contract for some kind of meth treatment prison. Lawmakers suggested a 40-bed facility, although corrections officials have said they want to triple the size to 120 beds because meth is such a problem in Montana.
Just one of the four proposals under review calls for 120 beds. Community, Counseling and Correctional Services Inc. of Butte is proposing to build 80 beds for men and 40 beds for women in a $10.5 million treatment facility in Lewistown.
The Butte company is also proposing an 80-bed facility in Lewistown for men only. Alternatives Inc. of Billings wants to build a 60-bed female treatment center in the Howard Johnson Express Inn in Billings for $2 million, while Boyd Andrew Community Services of Helena is proposing a 60-bed facility for women in Boulder at a cost of about $5.3 million.
Corrections officials hope to award a contract in March, and have the treatment prison up and running sometime next year.
The START (Sanction, Treatment, Assessment, Revocation and Transition) program is an 80-bed facility located at Warm Springs. Male offenders are placed in the program after disciplinary, on-site or intervention hearing by a community corrections hearings officer as a sanction or because the offender’s community placement was revoked.
Sanctioned offenders will likely be at the program for 30 days or less. The division administrator must approve longer stays. After completing their stay, offenders will go back to their previous status such as parole, probation, prerelease or conditional release. Sanctioned offenders are seen as doing county jail time for not complying with supervision requirements.
One might call a sanction a “wake-up” call. The hearings officer is warning an offender that his freedom is in serious jeopardy. During the sanction period, the staff at START will assist offenders and give them opportunities to improve their chances of staying in the community once released.
Revocation-status offendersare placed at START after a community corrections hearings officer feels the offender has worn out his welcome in the community.
It is likely that the offender has been given prior chances to fulfill supervision conditionsand the time has come for the offender to be held accountable for not following the rules. It is also likely that a hearings officer feels the offender is posing a threat to public safety and is probably viewed as out of control and needing more structure.
Prior to the opening of START in mid-December, offenders would have gone directly to the reception unit at the Montana State Prison.
The goal of START is to assess the offender’s options and to see what might help him to be returned to the community instead of being sent to prison. The assessment will come in the form of exploring the offender’s needs and determining the root of the offender’s behavior that landed him in the program.
Once staffers have completed the assessment and are comfortable with the offender’s progress, they will work with the offender to apply for community options. The options may be prerelease, intensive or enhanced supervision, boot camp, or even a straight parole or conditional release.
As meth addicts in Montana flood a crowded and costly state prison system, the kind of treatment addiction experts say works best remains out of reach.
But that's slated to change this year.
In 2005, the Montana Legislature appropriated funds for a state-funded, meth-specific treatment facility.
Now planning for the program is under way, and officials think it could help temper the devastation caused by methamphetamine addiction in Montana.
“We're certainly hopeful this is going to work, because this is a substance abuse problem that requires a specialized kind of treatment,” said Sam Lemaich, who heads the probation and parole offices for western Montana. “Methamphetamine use is our No. 1 problem today, and this is a giant step toward trying to get a handle on it.”
In March, the Montana Department of Corrections will award the contract to a private, nonprofit Montana corporation that will eventually manage the Residential Methamphetamine Treatment Program.
A 120-bed facility, the center will target offenders convicted of second or subsequent criminal possession of methamphetamine charges.
The facility will provide individual and group treatment for six to nine months, and focus directly on meth addiction - a strange new beast in the realm of substance abuse.
Officials won't know where the facility will be located until they've reviewed all the proposals, a task that could take some time.
Lemaich said one agency's proposal amounted to four boxes full of several thousand documents to review.
“That's good, but it's going to take some time to sift through,” he said.
Rather than build a new one, Lemaich said the treatment program could be housed in an existing facility.
“The issue in siting a new place is getting public approval,” he said. “Meth users are a high-risk kind of folks, and security will be a big issue.”
Offenders of all criminal backgrounds will be considered for placement; when the program is fully operational, it may serve up to 240 offenders every year.
But even though drug possession and drug dealing are among the most frequent crimes committed by both male and female prisoners, officials suspect substance abuse contributes to other crimes, too.
According to the Montana Department of Corrections report to the 2005 Legislature, “One could safely assume the thefts, burglaries and bad check charges are activities committed to support a drug and/or alcohol addiction, with methamphetamines being the drug of choice.”
Lemaich agrees.
He sees lots of people who are on probation for unrelated crimes, but are using meth.
“Even if they're not in jail for possession of the drug, they might be there for burglary or bad checks - crimes they commit to feed their addiction.”
But addicts convicted of meth-related crimes, like burglaries and bad check charges, won't be eligible for treatment in the new facility.
“There's a lot of collateral damage done by this drug,” he said. “But we had to make a decision of where to draw the line because so many people will need this treatment. This is a good start, but it won't fill all the cracks. It's not going to be the panacea to Montana's methamphetamine problem.”
And while Lemaich expects the facility won't have any trouble filling its beds, if it does, there could be exceptions to the admittance criteria.
“If we fill up the 120 beds with people that have second offenses for meth possession, that's what it will be used for,” Lemaich said.
According to a 2002 Montana task force that studied substance abuse, roughly half of all convicts entering the prison system are there because they have violated the conditions of parole or probation orders.
“Without effective treatment, addicted criminal offenders will likely return to the system over and over again,” members of the task force wrote.
But none of Montana's prisons regularly offer effective meth-specific treatment, and the 30- to 60-day standard programs barely get addicts past the withdrawal stage.
The most extensive treatment program at the Montana State Prison is the intensive treatment unit, where inmates receive two months of semi-inpatient counseling.
Meanwhile, the waiting list for standard treatment grows longer.
Of the prison's 1,400 inmates, more than 1,100 - about 80 percent - need drug and alcohol treatment programs of some kind, said Blair Hopkins, who oversees addiction treatment at the prison.
In Missoula, Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Clark routinely deals with drug offenders, and has gotten used to seeing the same faces again and again.
“There are people I've actually gotten to know because they keep offending,” she said. “The drug is so addictive it's like a revolving door, and people are not getting the help they need.”
But with all the talk from legislators and Gov. Brian Schweitzer about beating meth addiction in Montana, Clark and Lemaich are just satisfied that the meth problem is finally getting the attention it deserves.
“The biggest point is that everybody, all the way up to the governor's office and the state attorney general's office, has recognized this is important,” Lemaich said. “From a criminal justice perspective to health and law perspectives, methamphetamine is a major problem in the state.”
Gov. Brian Schweitzer challenged state officials Friday to find new ways to rehabilitate criminals and keep them out of prison.
"We've got to stop warehousing souls," he told about 100 people at a celebration honoring the Bozeman halfway house. "That's not working in Montana,that's not working in this country."
Schweitzer, Montana Department of Corrections Director Bill Slaughter and local criminal justice officials attended a ceremony in honor of the new 32-bed halfway house located on South 16th Avenue near the Law and Justice Center.
Schweitzer told the crowd Montana must lead the country in starting new programs like the halfway house to improve the justice system and curtail repeat offenders.
Part of the solution is to create good jobs, provide students with a good education and gain community support for new programs, he said.
The halfway house, which is run by the Butte nonprofit Community Corrections and Counseling Services, opened Dec. 12.
The goal of the program is to integrate offenders back into society with the support and supervision of the staff and programs offered at the home.
The program rehabilitates people from the Montana State Prison and Gallatin County jail.
"Prison isn't working," Slaughter told the crowd. "This re-entry program is what we're all about."
District Judge Mike Salvagni didn't want a halfway house more than 10 years ago when he was the county attorney, he said. His reasons included public safety issues and a lack of jobs for inmates.
"Gallatin County is a different place now than it was back then," he said of the need for a halfway house in Bozeman.
Offenders must stay in the home for about six months before they're released into the community with money, a job and a place to live on their own.
Everyone in the home must hold a job or attend school full time. Employers have been hiring men from the halfway house, paying them $15 to $22 an hour in a construction job.
They pay about $300 a month to live in the 6,600-square-foot prefabricated home. No violent or sexual offenders are allowed.
Professionals provide drug and alcohol treatment, anger-management counseling, parenting and other classes for the residents.
A five-person screening committee, including a resident who lives near the halfway house, decides who can live in the home.
This page was last updated on 08/05/09.
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