By Mike Dennison
MTN News
HELENA — With Montana’s prison system and jails at 109 percent of capacity and growing, a state commission is taking a hard look at how to reduce that trend – and it’s getting some big-league help.
A group of national experts, funded by a private foundation and the federal government, will be crunching the data to analyze what’s behind Montana’s inmate population growth and recommend some potential policy changes.
“We all know that if we do nothing, the alternative is building another prison, and nobody wants to do that,” said Sen. Cynthia Wolken, D-Missoula, who chairs the Commission on Sentencing. “That’s the trajectory we’re on, unless we change something and change it pretty fast.”
The 15-member commission held its first meeting last week in Helena, where it heard from the experts who will be analyzing the data and elements of Montana’s criminal-justice system.
The analysis will be conducted by staff from the Council of State Governments’ Justice Center, with direction from the commission.
Full story: National experts helping Montana consider ways to reduce prison, jail populations