Reginald Michael Director Montana Department Corrections

The Lost and Unwanted Souls…Victims of Montana Corrections.

The Montana Department of Corrections and the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole have collaborated to incarcerate mentally ill offenders at Montana State Prisons for indeterminate amounts of time for management purposes only. These incarcerations are for long term mental health needs management, not based on judicial orders and no one accepts jurisdiction over these lost and unwanted souls. These incarcerations are for management purposes only. This collaboration is an illegal agreement under the Administrative Rules of Montana.

To fully understand what is happening to our mentally ill citizens one must be aware of three separate documents, when put together reveal a tragic consequence of long term incarceration to “manage” mental illness and no one is accepting jurisdiction for placement upon being paroled or released. With no placement there is no parole or release.

1)  Administrative Rules of Montana (ARM) Rule 20.1.101 states the Board of Pardons and Parole is responsible for the oversight of Montana's inmate parole and furlough programs.  The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole adopts administrative rules separately from the Department of Corrections.
2)  Montana Department of Corrections P&P Procedure No. 4.1.100 Secure Placement - A management decision to place an offender at a secure facility for long term mental health needs and/or treatment.
Montana Department of Corrections determines secure facilities as  Montana State Prison (MSP), Montana Women’s Prison (MWP), Great Falls Regional Prison, Dawson County Correctional Facility, and Crossroads Correctional Center. The mentally ill offender is now an inmate at a state prison and under ARM Rule 20.1.101 the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole has jurisdiction over inmate parole.
3)  Memorandum of Understanding Between Montana Department of Corrections and Montana Board of Pardons and Parole (MOU)  The parties agree that the Board of Pardons and Parole has jurisdiction over DOC Commitments that the DOC has placed in prison under a Secure Placement Request except DOC commitments that the DOC has placed in prison for mental health treatments for the period necessary to meet the DOC Commit's mental health care needs.  This agreement was signed by BOPP Chairperson Annette Carter and Montana Department of Corrections Reginald Michael.

Administrative Rules of Montana (ARM) state that the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole (BOPP) is responsible for all inmate parole and furlough. The Montana Department of Corrections places mentally ill people in prison, not under judicial orders but for management purposes only. Once a mentally ill person is placed in prison they become an inmate under the Administrative Rules of Montana. BOPP says we will accept jurisdiction over all inmates except those inmates that are placed in prison for management of mental illness. BOPP says leave your mentally ill commitments for as long as is necessary but we are not taking jurisdiction. Montana Department of Corrections leaves the mentally ill person in prison for as long as necessary to treat the inmates long term mental health needs. Long term is long term. There is no parole or release available because BOPP won’t take jurisdiction.

Montana Department of Corrections has placed these lost, unwanted souls in prison because DOC can’t or won’t manage their mental illness. BOPP says fine, leave them in prison for whatever amount of time you want. We aren’t responsible for them and we aren’t finding placement, treatment or parole. Montana Administrative Rules says if a person is an inmate BOPP has jurisdiction and is responsible for placement and parole. BOPP says, not happening.

Administrative Rules of Montana was established for a good and decent society. The Montana Department of Corrections and the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole entered into an agreement not consistent with the Administrative Rules of Montana and not consistent with a good and decent society. Manage our mentally ill citizens by long term incarceration, not for judicial reasons but for management reasons. Make an agreement where no one has jurisdiction for placement, treatment, parole and release. Without placement and treatment there is no parole or release.

Under the rules of Montana, The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole has jurisdiction of these lost and unwanted souls. The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole is refusing to meet their obligation to the State of Montana. But then, what decent and good society wants these lost and unwanted souls anyway.

Montana Board of Pardons and Parole Annette Carter and The Montana Department of Corrections Reginald Michael…do your jobs as set forth by the Administrative Rules of Montana or get out so we can find someone who will do the job.

The New Warden of the Montana State Prison, No Real Prison Experience Necessary

Headlines across Montana:

HELENA — A former Idaho corrections official has been named the warden of the Montana State Prison. Corrections Director Reginald D. Michael said Tuesday that Lynn Guyer will begin his job at the Deer Lodge prison on Oct. 22. Guyer retired in May 2016 after 13 years as warden of the North Idaho Correctional Institution.

Warden of the North Idaho Correctional Institution (NICI)? Does anybody actually know what the North Idaho Correctional Institution is? Well let’s take a look because it isn’t a prison.

NICI primarily houses defendants sentenced under a retained jurisdiction sentence. Retained jurisdiction provides a sentencing alternative for courts to target defendants who might, after a period of programming and evaluation, be viable candidates for probation rather than incarceration. Retained jurisdiction means the judge retains jurisdiction over the defendant. Idaho Department of Corrections does not have jurisdiction over the defendant, the judge retains that jurisdiction.

Per the Idaho Department of Corrections Website:
"Retained jurisdiction, often called a rider, is a sentencing option available to judges in the State of Idaho. Offenders sentenced under retained jurisdiction are called as retained jurisdiction. During the 90- to 365-day retained jurisdiction sentence offenders receive treatment." http://www.idoc.idaho.gov/content/prisons/inmate_classification...

The North Idaho Correctional Facility is a treatment center, not a prison. NICI currently averages a 414 male defendant population serving retained jurisdiction sentences (“riders”) between 90 to 180 days where defendants receive treatment for substance abuse, counseling, GED and workforce training. At their rider’s completion, defendants are evaluated and recommended to the court to be either placed on probation or ordered to serve their underlying prison sentence.

Defendants at NICI are not serving prison sentences, they are receiving treatment. Retained jurisdiction is what is commonly referred to as the "Rider" program. There are now several options for this available to the Judge. Depending on what one is utilized, the "end date" is when the Judge has to decide whether to place the defendant on probation, or to simply impose the sentence and remand to the custody of the Department of Corrections. During the time at the treatment center where Lynn Guyer was the warden, the defendant has not yet been remanded to the Department of Corrections.

Here is Lynn Guyer's work history in corrections:

Lynn Guyer started his career at the treatment center at the North Idaho Correctional Institution as a correction officer. Two years later he transferred to the Nampa Community Work Center as employment development coordinator. In 1990, he went to Caldwell to work as a probation officer, four years later to the IDOC central office in Boise as program coordinator for Probation and Parole (P&P), and in 1996 was promoted to P&P district manager in Twin Falls. In June 2003 be became warden at the North Idaho Correctional Institution treatment center.

He worked at a treatment center as a correctional officer. He then worked as an employment development director. He then worked as a probation officer and then became "warden" at the same treatment center where he worked as a correctional officer. With this work history he now has the experience to be warden for the Montana State Prison (MSP), the largest correctional facility in the state, housing nearly 1,500 male inmates in a 68-acre compound designed to handle all custody levels: maximum, close, medium and minimum.

The Deer Lodge High School mascot is the "Wardens". Just because the high school students call themselves "Wardens" does not make them experienced to be the Warden of the Montana State Prison. Being a warden of a treatment center does not make Lynn Guyer experienced to actually be a warden of a prison.

Maybe Reginald Michael said it best at the Interim Law and Justice Committee meeting recently held in Helena. "It's very hard to find someone to work in the middle of nowhere Montana." Well, Mr. Michael, that's where we are.

Warden of the Montana State Prison, no experience necessary.

Lynn Guyer, Newly Appointed Warden State of Montana Prison, Shocking Support of Bizarre Judge

Lynn Guyer was recently appointed Warden of the Montana State Prison. The appointment was made by Reginald Michael, Director of the Montana Department of Corrections. Guyer’s support of Idaho Judge Randy Stoker is so shocking and so outside of Montana values. Read the entire blog about this 14 year old rape victim that was impregnated by her rapist and you decide if Guyer’s support of Judge Stoker is something you can support. Your tax money is supporting these values.

01/14/2018 - Lynn Guyer
I first met Judge Stoker in 1996 while I was District Manager of Probation/Parole in Twin Falls. I found him to be a very honorable man. He always kept a balance with what was best for society, the victim and the offender in mind when determining his decisions. Lynn Guyer, Warden Retired, North Idaho Correctional Institution.

Idaho judge says rape is 'a direct consequence of the social media system.' After issuing an unusual probation sentence for a man who raped a 14-year-old girl, Judge Randy J Stoker delivered a sermon on modern-day morality.

An Idaho judge who said a man who raped a 14-year-old girl could be released on probation if he agreed not to have sex outside of wedlock also linked the case to a breakdown of morality in the social media age, adding: If I had my way, I would eliminate the internet.

The unusual requirement that a convict remain celibate as a condition of probation received widespread attention this week, after segments of Judge Randy J Stokers ruling were made public.

I will tell you, sir, that if you are ever placed on probation to this court, a condition of that probation will be you will not have sexual relations with anyone other than who you are married to, if you're married, period, the Twin Falls district judge said.

However, additional details of the judges ruling, contained in a transcript of the hearing obtained by the Guardian, reveal how Stoker delivered what amounts to a sermon on modern-day morality in which he connected the 14-year-old victim's rape to the social media system.

The extramarital celibacy requirement is highly unusual but has some statutory basis in conservative Idaho, where premarital sex is still technically a crime, although the statute banning fornication is rarely if ever enforced.

Twin Falls prosecuting attorney Grant P Loebs said the sex offenders compliance with the no-sex rule would be tested via polygraph. "The probation officer whose job it is to make sure you're not a threat to the community will ask you ... have you been doing this or this or this?" he said. "That's the way those conditions are checked. Not by spying on someone."

Stoker said in court that he could have sentenced Cody D Herrera to life in prison for raping the 14-year-old girl in 2015. Instead, he sent the 20-year-old to a treatment program run by the Idaho prison system. If Herrera completes the program within a year, he will be placed on probation.

But if he violates the conditions of his probation, Stoker said, he will be sentenced to as much as 15 years in prison.

In handing down his striking judgement last month, Stoker imposed the additional condition of celibacy outside of marriage, and also railed against what he suggested was today's hook-up culture. He questioned Herrera's level of remorse and noted the young mans proclivities, a taste for pornography, an astounding number of partners, and fantasies of sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Modern-day technology, he added, was at fault.

I think it is a direct consequence of the social media system that we have in this country, Stoker continued. I can't tell you how many times I have seen these cases: How did this happen? Well, I met somebody on social media.

Stoker conceded that Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and other sites might not be the direct cause of all the sexual assault cases he has presided over in the deeply conservative Gem State. But he said the vast majority of such cases originate online.

I can't change that, he said. If I had my way, I would eliminate the internet, and we'd all have better lives. But I can't do that either. It also says something about, I guess, the level of morality in this country. I can't change morality. People are going to do what they're going to do.

According to court documents, Herrera and the victim met in 2014. He was 17 at the time. The girl told him she was 16. They hung out with friends, went to the mall, and communicated via Facebook. But when her mother found out about the relationship, she tried to put a stop to it.

The mother called Herrera and Herrera's mother. She explained that her child was only 14, too young to have a boyfriend. But Herrera and the girl continued their online relationship.

On 2 March 2015, Herrera snuck into the girls bedroom, ostensibly to watch a movie with her. He began to fondle the girl. She asked him to stop. He then raped her without wearing a condom.

Not long after, according to the affidavit of Twin Falls police detective Benjamin Mittelstadt, Herrera heard a rumor that the girl was pregnant. He called her mother to find out, in a conversation that was later downloaded from the woman's phone.

During this conversation Mr Herrera admitted to knowing that [the girl] was underage, Mittelstadt said, and stated he did not want to be stuck behind bars being raped and stabbed for what had happened.

The girls mother told Stoker in the Twin Falls courtroom that her family fell prey to a manipulative predator. Herrera did not just rape her daughter, the woman said, but he also harassed and threatened the young girl and her friends and relatives.

It was his intent from the beginning to take what he wanted from my 14-year-old child, her virginity, and he stayed around until he got it from her, she told Stoker. Cody will never understand what he has done to our family. Cody robbed her of her innocence. He destroyed the child left in her. This can never be returned.

Dan Brown, Herrera's defense attorney, told Stoker that his client comes before this court young and somewhat naive in many respects. His fondness for pornography might be unsavory, Brown said, but it certainly hasn't hurt anyone.

Herrera pleaded guilty to one felony count of rape. By his own admission, the judge said, Herrera had 34 sexual encounters with separate individuals while still in his teens and his attitude was, well, I'm going to use young children for sexual gratification.

I have never, never seen that level of sexual activity in a 19-year-old, in this court system, and I've been doing this for 15, 16 years, Stoker said. My view of life is that what you do in the past is a good indication of what you're going to do in the future.

A little 14 year old girl is raped and impregnated. The judge says it is the fault of social media and sentences the sex offender to a celibate probation. The sex offender can only have sex with his wife, if he is married. Warden Lynn Guyer says the judge is a very honorable man and supports Judge Stoker stating that a celibate probation for a sex offender is what is best for society.

There isn't anymore I can say here that isn't already here. Do you support the appointment of Lynn Guyer as Warden of the Montana State Prison?

Implosion Of The Montana Department of Corrections

In January, 2018 the Montana Law and Justice Interim Committee met in Helena. The meeting was particularly interesting in that a glaring deficiency was apparent. Unless Governor Steve Bullock and Department of Corrections Director Reginald Michael are truly behind the Committee it will fail and, unfortunately, it has been designed to fail. The implosion of the Montana Department of Corrections began in 2014 and continues today. Governor Bullock and previous Corrections Director Mike Batista and Bureau Chief Ron Alsbury are fully responsible.

Montana’s prisons are over capacity. The prison population increased 11 percent between FY2008 and FY2015 and is projected to continue to grow 13
percent by FY2023, requiring at least $51 million in new spending for contract prison beds.

Corrections in Montana is big business.  Really big business.  Private Corrections in Montana is really big business.  State run corrections in Montana is really big business.

By Peter Wagner and Bernadette Rabuy

January 25, 2017

Governor Bullock is term limited from being Governor for another term in Montana.  His sights are set on a national campaign.  National political campaigns are not funded by individual felons from Montana.  They are funded by big business.  This is where the implosion began and how it continues today.

In July 2014 Director Mike Batista and Bureau Chief Ron Alsbury began discussing reorganization of the Adult Community Corrections Division and changes to the sanctions grid.  The sanctions grid determines the probation/parole status of offenders and what punishments are exacted for violations, including minor and technical infractions.  The following grid was established.  Click on link below to view grid.

sj3-sanctions-flow-chart

October 9, 2014 Department of Corrections personnel received an email from Dave Armstrong, Administrator of Alternatives Inc, a private contract pre-release center, which is known as Alpha House for men and Passages for women. "So besides Cr'ing (conditional release) everyone in jail, what else?  What should we expect from the P&P grid, will be asked to hang onto drug and alcohol users?"

Probation/Parole offenders that are under normal supervision are sanctioned to jail by court authority.  Probation/Parole offenders on conditional release, under the new grid, will be sanctioned by probation/parole officers to private contract facilities without having to file with the court.  There is no money in corrections for offenders sitting in jail. There is big money for offenders sanctioned to private facilities.  Under the P&P grid all sanctions for conditional release will be made to private contract facilities without the need for interventions and court action. Put everyone sitting in jail on conditional release then probation/parole does not need to go through interventions they simply go straight to private incarceration. The plan is now in place for big business.

September 16, 2014 at a DOC meeting it was revealed that one DOC employee had a meeting with Mike Thatcher, CEO of Butte Pre-release, where it was revealed that Governor Bullock had called Mike Thatcher to his office and Governor Bullock told him to keep his mouth shut about DOC issues and to back off during the legislative session.  Without revealing his plan to Mike Thatcher Governor Bullock did not want Thatcher to disrupt his plans to increase private contractor beds to increase population in private facilities.  The plan for big business.

September 30, 2104 at a meeting with DOC personnel, concerns were expressed that the contract with PEW Charitable Trust and Dennis Schranz was "shady and would bite us in the ass."  Concern was also expressed that there was no procurement for the PEW contract and that personnel and contractors would be watching for the contract to be posted to a department or state website.  The PEW Charitable Trust is a consulting firm that was hired to assist the Montana Law and Justice Interim Committee to plan and reform criminal justice and sentencing.  The Pew Charitable Trust was hired to reduce the need for more private contract beds while Governor Bullock, Mike Batista and Ron Alsbury's plan was to increase private contract beds by sanctioning probation/parolees to conditional release, bypassing interventions and sanctioning offenders directly to contract beds.

The Law and Justice Interim Committee is being directed by The Pew Charitable Trust with a contract that was not put through the State of Montana procurement process.  The intent of the Committee is to reduce jail, prison and private contract incarceration.  Unbeknownst to the Law and Justice Committee, the Governor and the Director of the Montana Department of Corrections are acting in a complete opposite direction.  Big business requires the incarceration of individuals and Governor Bullock needs the backing of big business.  This includes corrections agencies both public and private, employees and their big business unions, health care, construction, food, utilities, clothing, phone companies, judges, prosecutors, public defenders, police and their unions, commissary and the list goes on for big business.  

The Law and Justice Interim Committee meets and listens to attractive people with agenda's purporting the good work they are doing to reduce jail, prison and private incarceration.  They tour facilities and have inmates smile at them for the good work they are attempting to do.  The real question they need to ask is how many probation/parolees are conditionally released from jails and then sanctioned to private contract facilities and prisons because under the P&P grid those on conditional release do not need to go through the intervention and court process.  They are sanctioned to incarceration because the probation and parole officers no longer have to file with the court to sanction them.  The incarceration rates continue to rise because Governor Bullock's plan undermines the work of the Committee and they don't have a clue what is really happening.

Governor Bullock needs big business to finance his national campaign.  The next question is where does the new Montana Director of Corrections Reginald Michael stand?  He was hand picked by Governor Bullock. Does he stand with Governor Bullock and the Montana Department of Corrections undermining the work of the Committee or does he stand with the Law and Justice Interim Committee?