fbpx

Bureau of Indian Affairs Planning to Re-open Hardin Jail

The 464-bed jail was constructed by a private company working with local officials in 2007

By Dillon Tabish

BILLINGS — The Bureau of Indian Affairs expects to re-open a vacant Montana jail on the edge of the Crow Indian Reservation that’s sat empty for much of the last decade.

The bureau’s director recently told a Senate committee that the agency is finalizing a contract to begin operating the Two Rivers Detention Facility in Hardin within the next three months, the Billings Gazette reports .

The 464-bed jail was constructed by a private company working with local officials in 2007.

It was meant to spur Hardin’s economy. But the city and its business partners have struggled to find contracts for inmates.

The BIA began using the jail in 2014 but later ended that contract.

The Crow Reservation has no jail. Inmates sentenced in Crow courts are sometimes transported to jails hundreds of miles away.