Tag: Private Corrections In Montana

Montana Dept of Corrections and Community Counseling and Correctional Services Antiquated Treatment

Community Counseling and Correctional Services (CCCS) Inc is a not for profit, private correctional facility in Butte that contracts with the Montana Department of Corrections (MDOC) to incarcerate and provide treatment for adult offenders.  CCCS Inc contracts with MDOC to provide addiction treatment at WATCH, the men’s program at Warm Springs and Watche, the women’s program in Glendive.

The men's WATCH program has a capacity of 115 individuals.  CCCS Inc contracts with the Montana Department of Corrections for a per diem daily rate of $63.69.  The total daily per diem rate is $7324.35.  The treatment program lasts for 6 months or 180 days.  The total cost of treatment for 115 individuals for 6 months is $1,318,383.00.

The women's WATCHe program has a capacity of 50 individuals.  CCCS Inc contracts with the Montana Department of Corrections for a per diem daily rate of $103.62.  The total daily per diem rate is $5181.00.  The treatment lasts for 6 months or 180 days.  The total cost of treatment for 50 individuals for 6 months is $932,580.00.

The total cost for 6 months of treatment for WATCH and WATCHe is $2,250,963.00.

The 2017 Legislature changed state law concerning treatment programs for people convicted of fourth or subsequent DUI.  Whereas people convicted of a fourth or more felony DUI charge were previously required to either serve prison time or complete WATCh’s in-patient treatment, House Bill 133, a sweeping sentencing-reform bill passed last year, contains a provision that allows them to be sentenced to an appropriate treatment court program instead, which Mike Thatcher (CEO of CCCS Inc) finds baffling.

Baffling?  Participants in treatment court programs are enrolled for 12 - 18 months at a cost of $4000.00 per offender.  If all 165 WATCH's participants were treated in treatment court programs the total cost would be $660,000.00 for 12 months of treatment vs the $2,250,963.00 for 6 months of treatment through the CCCS Inc WATCH programs.  In treatment court the offender has access to a social worker, an addiction counselor, a probation officer and a public attorney.  They are required to find their own housing, get a job, pay taxes and are at home with their children rather than the children being farmed out to foster care or elderly grandparents.  The job requirements for CCCS Inc is a high school diploma or GED vs a social worker, addiction counselor, a probation officer and a public attorney, all educated professionals.

Mike Thatcher and the Montana Department of Corrections operates on an antiquated belief system.  Evidence-based practices (this is a popular phrase now used in the correctional system) shows that addictions are the result of early childhood trauma.  Mike Thatcher believes Montanans "advocate that people should be completing WATCh as a ‘pound of flesh.’”

I believe that most Montanans advocate for the ability to provide housing, food, education and opportunities for their families.  The antiquated "pound of flesh" phrase comes from Shylock, a character in the play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. He is a Jewish money-lender who lends money to Antonio. When Antonio is unable to pay the money back, Shylock says he has the right to cut a pound of flesh from Antonio's body. I don't believe that Montanans want to cut flesh from the bodies of victims of childhood trauma. 

With a salary of a quarter of a million dollars a year, Mike Thatcher can afford a Shakespearean belief of cutting the flesh from trauma victims.  Other Montanans cannot afford the huge tax burden of supporting CCCS Inc and the Montana Department of Corrections antiquated belief system.  William Shakespeare died 400 years ago.  In 400 years we have evolved to evidence-based practices for treating early childhood trauma.  That evidence-based practice does not include cutting flesh from people.

Montanans advocate for improving the lives of their families.  Unnecessary tax burdens of millions of dollars does not improve the lives of Montana tax payers, it only improves the bank balances of CCCS Inc and the political position of the Montana Department of Corrections.

Are you still baffled Mike Thatcher (CEO of CCCS Inc) and Reginald Michael (Director of MDOC)?

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.