Lawmakers expressed their concerns to top leadership at the Montana Department of Corrections this week. over an audit that found limited education provided in state correctional facilities.
“When I read this report, I was pretty disappointed because we've been going through a lot of these problems for at least three and a half years,” said Rep. Fiona Naab, R-Columbus. “There has been a lot of reorganization, but no results have been achieved.”
The report said opportunities for education and work programs in Montana prisons are limited, characterized by long waiting lists and “inconsistent related programming.” Auditors also found that inmates' access to programs was unequal between private and public facilities.
At Tuesday's legislative committee meeting, DOC Secretary Brian Gootkin said COVID-19 has impacted how facilities manage instruction, and the department is already working to get delivery back on track. Ta. But lawmakers said they wanted to see concrete evidence of these improvements and asked the department to revisit in six months to provide data on how the situation had changed.
The Legislative Audit Division surveyed 2,380 inmates at the state's four adult prisons in Shelby, Deer Lodge, Billings and Glendive, and 48% responded.
The report found that education provision was not meeting demand, with more than 75% of prisoners not attending education for at least one day, and the majority not being prepared for classes that would prepare them for a career upon release. It turned out that the answer was Nearly 80% of inmates said they had never met with staff to discuss educational or career goals.
Auditors found the department's data on participation was incomplete and inaccurate, and private facilities Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby and Dawson County Correctional Facility in Glendive did not consistently report educational participation to the department. It has been found.
The report makes four recommendations for what DOC should address.
- Departments must identify information needs, develop roles and procedures, and develop ways to track and maintain data as the department implements new management information systems.
- The Department must complete a biennial plan to evaluate new programs, continue to evaluate existing programs, and coordinate and identify resources needed to expand educational and industrial opportunities across facilities. .
- The department will integrate education and career counseling into case management, develop a partnership with DLI to provide inmate reentry services, and design targeted reentry education and services for inmates exiting the system. and must be provided.
- The department must establish a process to enforce education and work-related contract provisions, monitor program quality and compliance with industry standards, and identify and review programs for contract facilities.
Gutkin said the audit was conducted “in the midst of COVID-19.”
The audit examined DOC's practices from 2020 to 2022.
“Not only has the world shut down, but our prisons have also shut down in terms of additional education programs,” Gutkin said. “We just performed basic operational functions.”
Gutkin said the department is aware of and working to change most of what is cited in the report, and also noted changes the department has already made, such as a new offender management system that provides new data collection capabilities. Stated.
The director said the department plans to install one-on-one tablets for use in instructional instruction in a new building being constructed at Deer Lodge. He said technology sharing with contracted facilities may also be considered to bridge educational opportunity gaps with state partners.
Natalie Smithham, the department's chief financial officer, said the state's contract facilities were fined $379,000 by the DOC for violating the law, but the department has no idea how the money will be used. He has not yet decided whether he plans to use it.
“Fines don't solve anything, people solve it,” Gutkin said. “So what we want to do is sit down and visit[contracted facilities]and come up with a solution in lieu of money.”
Mr. Nabe asked whether the department had contract-savvy staff who could easily fulfill their responsibilities. Gutkin said the department doesn't provide enough training for the job.
“We just failed,” he said.
But now the department is building a better training matrix with subject matter experts on the contract monitoring process, which has been up and running for several months.
Scott Eischner, Director of Rehabilitation and Programs, said that as a result of staffing shortages, the department has also paused developing case plans for inmates due to COVID-19, and has not been able to sit down with inmates to create case plans. He said this meant no one asked inmates what their goals and interests were. He said the department is once again embarking on such efforts, but they are currently “in a state of flux.”
He said that when Mr. Gutkin took over, data was “siloed” into separate spreadsheets for different departments, but that data is starting to be streamlined.
“We have consolidated case management across the company into one group under one boss. This allows us to apply consistent processes and standards, track what we are doing, and monitor the situation. Now we can figure it out,” Eichner said. “We are just starting to see results.”
Sen. Chris Friedel, R-Billings, asked how the department plans to train inmates to meet market labor demands.
Gutkin, who is working with the University of Montana to study market needs, said inmates also need a basic education and must strive to pass the HiSET (High School Equivalency) exam. Ta. He said earlier in the meeting that inmates have an average fourth-grade education.
Ms Neve said she understood that inmate education can come with unique challenges, but was still disappointed that “nothing seems to be happening”.
Sen. Jason Ellsworth (R-Hamilton) called on the department to come back in six months and provide “evidence” of how things have improved since the audit.
“I think we're all concerned about this audit, and I'm sure you are too, but we're concerned about the people of Montana,” Ellsworth said.
“We want something practical.”
