Montana Department of Corrections eyeing Butte, Boulder, Hardin for new women’s prison

The Montana Department of Corrections said Tuesday that it is considering three localities — Hardin, Butte and the greater Boulder area — as it determines where to site a new women’s prison. 

Boulder and Butte are under consideration because the department already owns property in those locations, spokesperson Carolynn Stocker said in an email to MTFP. She also said the department is working with Hardin because a representative of the community reached out directly. 

Stocker said the department hasn’t made a firm commitment to any of the three locations and doesn’t have a timeline for a decision.

A bill allocating $250 million for a new women’s facility was one component of the roughly $436 million this year’s Legislature approved for expanding state prisons. 

As the bill was debated on the floor of the Montana House in April, sponsor, Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda, called it an opportunity “to set some money aside to deal with the most pressing issue that we now have in our correctional system, which is a lack of capacity for women prisoners.”

Gov. Greg Gianforte said at an April press conference that the state’s female correctional facilities are 14% over capacity.

As of Tuesday, about 84% of Montana’s nearly 300 incarcerated women were held at Montana Women’s Prison in Billings, according to a department dashboard. The remainder were serving sentences at Riverside Facility in Boulder.

Local leaders representing Boulder and Hardin expressed support for locating the new facility in their communities in comments to MTFP Tuesday.

Boulder also hosts Elkhorn Treatment Center, a behavioral health center with a focus on substance use disorder that accepts female DOC inmates. The Montana Highway Patrol also maintains its headquarters at the southern edge of Boulder’s downtown.

“We’re already a community that kind of supports that lifestyle anyway. So to me, and from a municipality standpoint, we just sell more water and sewer and utilities. Which, as the city of Boulder, that’s what we’re in the business for,” Boulder Mayor Rusty Giulio said in an interview Tuesday. 

Corey Kirsch, the Jefferson County commissioner representing the Boulder area, expressed measured optimism about the project.

“I would say — before knowing everybody’s sentiment on it — that we would very much support such a facility in our little town here just because of the economic benefit,” Kirsch said in an interview.

Clayton Greer, a Hardin city commissioner, cited economic upsides. Hardin completed a 464-bed jail in 2006 at a cost of $27 million in local bonds, but a string of setbacks have prevented the state from using it to house state inmates. 

The corrections department did not indicate Tuesday whether it would seek to repurpose existing facilities.

Some Butte-Silver Bow residents voiced concerns about the possibility of siting a new women’s prison there during a June 4 Council of Commissioners meeting, according to Montana Public Radio. The commission voted unanimously to officially ask the DOC for additional details.

The 2025 Legislature also approved funding to address overcrowded men’s prisons, including major renovations to Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.