Flathead County Officials and Residents Divided Over Potential Prerelease Center in Evergreen

Flathead County commissioners on Thursday heard testimony from residents and government officials who stood divided over the proposal of a Montana Department of Corrections (MDOC) prerelease center that would replace the existing Greenwood Village Inn and Suites in Evergreen.

If approved, a 90-bed, secured prerelease facility would provide a step-down program for male offenders to reintegrate into the community following their sentence. Flathead County commissioners Randy Brodehl, Brad Abell and Pam Holmquist will consider the adoption on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 9:15 a.m. and the Board of Adjustments will vote on the conditional use permit at 6 p.m.

There are currently seven prerelease centers across Montana, however, none exist in northwest Montana and the MDOC has identified the Flathead Valley as a region in need of a facility. The state currently contracts with organizations to operate centers in Billings, Butte, Bozeman, Great Falls, Helena and Missoula, but this would be the only state-run center.

In 2023, the Montana Legislature set aside $7.1 million for a prerelease center in northwest Montana and the MDOC has been searching for a location since last year.

A prerelease center was originally proposed in 2009 in Flathead County but never materialized.

Prerelease centers are designed to transition offenders back into the community with a six-month program that requires participants to work fulltime and receive appropriate treatments. The program provides a secure environment where individuals are heavily supervised.

MDOC officials said Flathead County offenders are currently sent to other statewide prerelease centers far from their homes, which creates barriers when they return to the Flathead. There are currently 131 individuals who were sentenced in Flathead County that are now in prerelease centers across the state.

“The biggest thing we can do is have the facility here so they start here – so they are successful here,” said Dave Castro, the MDOC probation and parole captain for the northwest region. “So when they do get released back into the community – like 99% of them are – they will be on the path to success because they would have employment, they have money saved up, they have an established residence, and they would be within a treatment program within our community. That is the best way we can reduce recidivism here in this area.”

Flathead County Jail Commander Jennifer Root said she supported the prerelease center to help prevent former inmates from returning to the detention center.

“I see inmates coming back into our facility time and time again because they get released from prereleases in other counties,” Root said. “This is where they live, this is their home – they’re going to come back here but they don’t have the stability in the setup that a prerelease provides.”

According to MDOC Director Brian Gootkin, 14.4% of the Montana State Prison population comes from Flathead County.

“That doesn’t seem like a big number, but it is a big number,” Gootkin said. “If they are going to a prerelease center, they are going to someone else’s community.”

Neighbors of the Greenwood Inn and Suites and proposed property site spoke in opposition of the prerelease center, citing concerns about public safety. Most of the residents recognized the need for a prerelease center, but said it was in the wrong location.

“Evergreen is suffering from 35-plus recreational marijuana shops – people in their pajamas,” BJ Lupton said. “We have the aroma of marijuana floating around the parking lots of businesses in Evergreen and so we’re going to put a [prerelease center] in Evergreen, right on top of 35 or 40 marijuana shops and everything else we’re dealing with? It’s the wrong location. Evergreen is fragile. Please do not place this [prerelease center] at the bottom of the underpass. Evergreen cannot handle it.”

Located next to a mobile home park, neighbors of the property were most concerned about potential walkaways from the facility and the pressure it would add to law enforcement.

According to 2023 data, the state dealt with 50 walkaways of the nearly 2,400 statewide prelease participants.

Castro assured the public that his office has a standard protocol for walkaways, which includes conducting a search, notifying staff and local law enforcement, and issuing a warrant.

Additional safety and security procedures will also be incorporated at the facility, which will include a state satellite office with probation and parole officers on site daily. The state also has plans to assign a narcotic-detecting K9 to the center.

But Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino was concerned that a prerelease center would add more to his department’s workload, which he said is already maxed with 40% of the call volume already coming from Evergreen. He also had concerns about potential violations that would send offenders to the already taxed Flathead County Detention Center.

“We would see some inmate population from the violations that are coming out of there,” Heino said. “We sit on several inmates awaiting DOC placement so there will be some functional bed space that will have to be part of this project.”

While the proposal has drawn a high volume of criticism, other residents, employers and county officials supported the prerelease center and said it would reduce recidivism in the Flathead while adding to the job market.

Steve Wilkins of Glacier Stone Supply, which is located near the proposed site, said he struggles to find staff and the company would benefit from having prerelease center workers who are regularly undergoing drug tests.

“To be able to have returning people coming to the community that we can give jobs to with healthcare, 401K … that would be major to us,” Wilkins said.  

Flathead County District Court judges Robert Allison, Dani Coffman and Heidi Ulbricht spoke in support of the prerelease center, which they said offers supervision, housing, programming and accountability to reduce recidivism.

“Our community desperately needs a prerelease,” Judge Ulbricht said.

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