Anaconda, Hardin, Butte and Boulder say they want to host a new women’s prison, a $250 million project that will be paid for by the Legislature’s roughly $436 million allocation toward expanded prison facilities across Montana.
The Department of Corrections first announced it was eyeing three locations — Butte, Boulder and Hardin — for a new women’s prison in June, but that it was also open to other options. In September, the department asked Montana counties to pitch themselves by sharing details about community interest, land availability, infrastructure, workforce and potential local partners in an official request for information.
The department may also consider locations that did not submit responses to the request.
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County and Big Horn County submitted substantially longer proposals than Butte-Silver Bow County and Jefferson County. The former two also indicated local support for the new infrastructure, while the latter pair acknowledged substantial backlash from community members.
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, a combined city-county government, advertised the region’s history of correctional infrastructure.
“It is not hyperbole to say that after the smelter closed in 1981, it was employment at the state hospital and, especially, the state prison which kept Anaconda alive. Without those two institutions in the valley, Anaconda would have shriveled in size,” wrote Anaconda-Deer Lodge officials in their proposal.
The county’s proposal also included a letter of support from the mayor of Deer Lodge, a town located just outside Anaconda-Deer Lodge County in neighboring Powell County that is home to Montana State Prison.
Big Horn County, which includes a large swath of the Crow Reservation and smaller part of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, said the facility’s estimated 200 permanent positions and 500 construction jobs would be a “transformative economic anchor.”
“This job creation is critical, as Big Horn County faces an unemployment rate of 5.8% (as of July 2025), which is significantly higher than the state average, and a high poverty rate of 23.6%,” officials wrote in their proposal.
Existing correctional facilities for women are split between eastern and western Montana. Montana Women’s Prison, which houses about 250 inmates, is located in Billings. A 50-inmate facility called Riverside is in Boulder.
The corrections department closed the information request process in mid-October and anticipates having a list of site criteria to help pick where to build by mid-November, according to Stocker.
“The new Montana Women’s Prison Site Selection team is developing site parameters and completing site research for the locations that submitted responses through the RFI process,” Stocker wrote to Montana Free Press on Thursday.
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