Montana Law and Justice Interim Committee

Montana Department of Corrections, Director Reginald Michael and the New Rape Lawsuit

CLICK ON LINK TO READ THE LAWSUIT

http://helenawinds.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Scan_0011.pdf

Please, can someone ask Reginald Michael where this stops? Maybe with Mr. Michael’s alleged history he isn’t the person to ask. Governor Bullock, where does this stop? Members of the Legislature, where does this stop? Members of the Law and Justice Interim Committee, where does this stop? PREA is a serious issue and someone needs to be held accountable. Apparently only Montana tax payers are held accountable. Your tax money will pay this lawsuit. Who do you hold accountable?

Montana Law and Justice Interim Committee – Someone Call Search and Rescue

The LJIC is responsible for monitoring the activities of the Office of the State Public Defender (OPD), the Department of Corrections (DOC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and any entities attached to those agencies for administrative purposes. The administratively attached entities that the LJIC monitors are: • the Board of Pardons and Parole (attached to DOC); • the Board of Crime Control (attached to DOJ until January 1, 2018, when it will transfer to DOC); • the Gaming Advisory Council (attached to DOJ); and • the Public Safety Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council (attached to DOJ).

The LJIC is required to monitor the operations of the agencies under its jurisdiction and should give specific attention to: 1) identifying issues likely to require further legislative action; 2) identifying opportunities to improve existing laws that govern an agency’s operation and programs; 3) determining whether the experiences Montanans have had with an agency can be improved through legislative action; and 4) reviewing proposed agency legislation.

 
The Law and Justice Interim Committee has been meeting for the last two years implementing and monitoring laws designed to reduce prison overcrowding and recidivism.   The members come to the meetings with their designer coffee's and wander in late after roll call.  The law enforcement personnel testifying get to put on "their good stuff" and look shiny.  The agencies being monitored turn out their best looking people dressed all fancy and smiling, with reports that have been worded just right.  The Committee Members tour prison facilities and of course Director Reginald Michael always looks great and speaks eloquently. Everyone looks shiny, dresses well and drinks expensive coffee...and spend millions of dollars.

The 2017 Legislature passed a package of bills purported to reduce prison overcrowding and recidivism in the Department of Corrections population. The Law and Justice Interim Committee was tasked with monitoring the operations of the agencies in implementing this package of laws. Perhaps the committee members got lost in Montana attempting to implement the law MCA 44-7-120. A law that actually provides housing for those inmates being released from prison. This law sprang from Senate Bill 65 and is now an actual law that cannot be enforced. I fear the members are lost somewhere looking for the housing created by this law. It is the only explanation I can find for their complete lack of monitoring the agencies they have been tasked to monitor and identifying opportunities to improve existing laws that govern an agency’s operation and programs.

Here are some recent newspaper headlines concerning these laws created by the legislature and tasked to the Law and Justice Interim Committee to implement and monitor.
Yellowstone County: A Montana sheriff is saying efforts to reduce jail crowding are backfiring Flathead County: “Nothing that happened at the Legislature has affected jail overcrowding at this point.
Lewis and Clark County: The planned renovations will bring capacity from the current 80 inmates to 156.

The Law and Justice Interim Committee, after two years of drinking designer coffee, listening to law enforcement personnel dressed up in their “good stuff”and listening to the carefully worded reports of monitored agencies, voted for the following legislative action to reduce prison overcrowding and reduce recidivism:

LAW AND JUSTICE INTERIM LEGISLATION

The committee voted in September 2018 to forward 3 bills to the 2019 Legislature.

LC 93 (LClj01) — Clarifying interim oversight of the Office of State Public Defender. Section 1. Section 5-5-228, MCA, is amended to read: (iv) the office of state public defender;
LC 360 (LClj02) — Revise appointment of board of pardons and parole members. Section 2. Section 2-15-2305, MCA, is amended to read: The members must be appointed as provided in [section 1]. using the process provided for in [section 1].
LC 361 (LClj04) — Eliminate or revise MCA references to Article II, section 36, of the Montana Constitution (Marsy’s Law). Marsy’s Law was passed by the heart strings of voters. The Montana Supreme Court has declared Marsy’s Law unconstitutional.

Two years of work, millions of dollars and the Law and Justice Interim Committee have added 23 words in two laws to relieve prison/jail overcrowding and to reduce recidivism. Meanwhile a few miles down the road the Montana Innocence Project, with the help of volunteers and donations, have exonerated seven wrongfully convicted people in Montana. The Montana Innocence Project did this without tax payer money, wearing jeans and t-shirts and fighting state prosecutors to free innocent people.

I fail to see where the addition of 23 words is going to relieve prison overcrowding, reduce recidivism and provide housing for those leaving prison. The Law and Justice Interim Committee has given a whole new meaning to GET LOST IN MONTANA.

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?