The Montana Department of Corrections plans to expand and renovate the Riverside Correctional Facility, a low-security women’s prison in Boulder. The project will double the compound’s capacity, raising it to roughly 100 over the next several years. Corrections spokesperson Carolynn Stocker said the agency has not determined the cost of the renovation. This is the first major project funded by House Bill 833, a roughly $250 million corrections spending package championed by state Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda. The agency plans to use the money to increase the state’s prison capacity.
In June, DOC indicated it was nonexclusively eyeing Hardin, Butte and the greater Boulder area as locations for building a new women’s prison with the money in HB 833. But at a Tuesday press event at Riverside, Gov. Greg Gianforte said the decision on where to spend the remainder of HB 833 has not been made.
Stocker said the remaining funds in HB 833 will be used for some combination of renovating and constructing women’s prison facilities.
The corrections department anticipates the Riverside expansion will minimize the need to house women with prison sentences in local county jails.
“There will always be some women with prison sentences in county detention centers awaiting transport to a DOC secure facility,” Stocker wrote. “However, additional capacity at Riverside will allow the department to move them out of those facilities at a faster pace than we could when we didn’t have that option.”
As of Wednesday, 38 of Montana’s nearly 340 women with prison sentences were held in jail awaiting space in the state prison, according to an agency dashboard. Most incarcerated Montana women are held at a 250-person facility in Billings.
The renovation plans for Riverside include improving security, remodeling buildings, expanding medical facilities and increasing programming. DOC officials expect the new prison capacity to bring 18 jobs, including 12 officers and six educators, to the 1,300-person town south of Helena.
Riverside hosted elderly male inmates with special health care needs until May, when the facility underwent minor renovations and its then-occupants were relocated to a low-security block in Deer Lodge’s Montana State Prison, a 1,600-person facility currently operating 75 inmates over capacity.
About 20 men with prison sentences are waiting in county jails for open prison space.
A 2023 bill brought by Fitzpatrick allocated $156 million for new low-security housing facilities at Montana State Prison. On Tuesday, corrections Director Brian Gootkin confirmed the expansion is on track to be completed by October 2027.
House Bill 5 from the 2025 session, a biennial bill allocating funds for long-term infrastructure projects, included $186 million for new prison dorm units and updated facilities.
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