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.