Tag: Lynn Guyer Montana Department of Corrections

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.

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.

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?