Month: July 2018

Private Corrections in Montana, CCCS Inc, The Bottomless Money Pit

CCCS Inc, (Community, Counseling and Corrections) in Butte Mt is also known as Butte Pre-Release and Women’s Transitional Center.  CCCS Inc opened its doors December 24, 1983, as a private contract correctional facility.  In 2002, CCCS Inc. successfully contracted with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to design, build and operate a 60-bed secure juvenile correction facility at Galen MT.  The name of the juvenile center at Galen was  Reintegrating Youthful Offenders (RYO).  The total cost of the project was 9.6 million dollars.

CCCS Inc charged a daily per diem rate of $235.75 for each incarcerated youth.  The facility operated for 12 years. $235.75 daily per diem X 60 beds = $14,145.00 per day. $14,145.00 X 365 days = $5,162,925.00 per year.  $5,162,925.00 X 12 years = $61,955,100.  The total cost of the project to CCCS Inc was 9.6 million dollars.  CCCS Inc. was paid $62 million dollars for operating Reintegrating Youthful Offenders.  CCCS Inc is a private contract prison facility.

Mike Thatcher, CEO of CCCS, said placement of offenders at the Reintegrating Youthful Offenders (RYO) facility, primarily serves the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and Native American reservations across Montana. 

Mike Thatcher said "the trend is to more alternative placements. I've been in this business 35 years and I've seen a lot of trends."  He said it's "one of the crappiest things" he's experienced in his career.  

Is it wise to send our children to a facility where it is unlikely that their parents or other significant adults in their lives will be able to have visitation with them and be involved in their intervention/treatment programs? How do Native Americans travel from far away reservations to Galen MT to be involved in their child's recovery?  To Mike Thatcher the consideration of treating children in alternative placements closer to home is "one the crappiest things" he's experienced in his career.  Mike Thatcher makes a salary of over one quarter of a million dollars a year.  His private contract youth correctional facility has garnered $62,000,000.00.  And so CCCS Inc closes RYO because of the "crappy decision" to treat children closer to their families. Don't be too concerned for Mike Thatcher and CCCS Inc because they found a deep pocket and silver lining called the State Of Montana.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s office announced that the state would lease the RYO facility and operate it as a facility for those committed to the currently critically overcrowded Montana State Hospital at Warm Springs through the criminal justice system. 

 Montana officials signed a 19-year lease at the 38,000-square-foot former federal juvenile placement facility in Galen – terms that squeaked just under square footage and lease term requirements that would have triggered mandatory legislative review of the deal.
There was no competitive bidding process to award the Galen lease. In fact, officials said they didn’t even look at potential alternatives to the $1.2 million annual agreement.

That's how the state’s newest landlord became Community Counseling and Correctional Services – a Butte-based nonprofit that employs Brandie Villa, a top company accountant and the wife of Governor’s Office Budget Director Dan Villa.

The State of Montana is obligated to CCCS Inc for a 19 year lease that totals $22,800,000.00.  CCCS Inc has managed to turn one private contract correctional facility costing $9.6 million into a facility that has garnered taxpayer funds of $84.8 million.  

This is the profit in non profit private corrections in Montana.  To quote Mike Thatcher "this is one of the crappiest things" I've seen.






	


	
	






	
	

		
Oh The Tangled Webs We Weave – Montana Board of Pardons and Parole
	


	

		
Montana Headlines: Montana’s new parole board is granting inmates’ release sooner after major changes made in 2017… according to data released by the Criminal Justice Oversight Council.  The quicker parole process owes to changes made during the 2017 Legislature.


The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole transitioned from a seven member volunteer board to a five member board at a cost of one half million dollars a year to the tax payers of Montana.  Board member Annette Carter made some very rosy statistics and data to the Criminal Justice Oversight Council.  Shall we see what the real data is?  

Data under the previous volunteer board:
January, 2017:  The Board made final dispositions on 246 matters.  The Board granted 59 paroles.  This is a 24% parole rate.

February, 2017: The Board made final dispositions on 252 matters.  The Board granted 61 paroles.  This is a 24% parole rate.

March, 2017:  The Board made final dispositions on 285 matters.  The Board granted 81 paroles.  This is a 28% parole rate.

The average parole rate under the old volunteer board for January, February and March 2017 is 25%.

Data under the new one half million dollar a year board:
January, 2018:  The Board made final dispositions on 278 matters.  The Board granted 70 paroles.  This is a 25% parole rate.

February, 2018:  The Board made final dispositions on 284 matters.  The Board granted 77 paroles.  This is a 27% parole rate.

March, 2018:  The Board made final dispositions on 331 matters.  The Board granted 88 paroles.  This is a 27% parole rate.

The average parole rate under the new one half million dollar a year board for January, February and March 2018 is 26%.  

For one half million dollars a year the State of Montana is getting a 1% increase in paroles granted.

There was broad bipartisan legislative support for the changes to the parole board.  The bill passed 97-3 in the House and 47-3 in the Senate. Only six people were against the huge financial expenditures for a 1% increase in granted paroles.  

I am not seeing the rosy picture Annette Carter presented to the Criminal Justice Oversight Committee.  Data can be skewed in many ways to present brilliant work and great results. Wording of the data can skew the true meaning. The data provided to the Oversight Committee was for the one month of April 2018.  The Board simply schedules in the month of April everyone they know they are going to parole.  That would surely skew the great results of the Board.  

Oh the tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.  Look at all the data before pronouncing the brilliant success of the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole.  The new board achieved a 1% increase in parole over the old board.