Results, Not Just Costs: What Montana's corrections numbers are telling us and what we can do about it.
I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend. I want to thank Operation Second Chance for inviting Carla and me to ride on their float. It was a privilege to celebrate alongside an organization that shows up for our veterans every day. I appreciate all that they do for those who have worn the uniform. Please consider supporting such a great cause.
Now, back to work. The interim is in full swing, and my committees continue digging into the issues that will shape the 2027 session. At my last Modernization and Risk Analysis (MARA) Committee meeting, we heard testimony from Marc Levin, Chief Policy Counsel at the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank that works with all fifty states, on Montana's corrections trends and what they mean for our budget and our communities.
Here is what the numbers tell us. Montana's prison population has grown more than 65 percent since 2000, while our state population grew 26 percent. As of mid-May, 3,413 Montanans were in prison, with projections climbing toward 3,650 when jail holds are counted. Overcrowding has forced us to house hundreds of inmates in private prisons in Arizona and Mississippi, far from the families and communities that support successful reentry. Last session, the Legislature approved $400 million for two new housing units in Deer Lodge and a new women's prison. Those were necessary decisions, but if the trend lines don't change, we will be back at the appropriations table again and again.
This is exactly the kind of problem MARA was built to examine. Fiscal notes in Montana cover the current fiscal year and the following three years, but a sentencing change may not show its full cost for ten to twenty years – long after the budget window closes. One of the Council's core recommendations is that Montana require long-range prison population impact statements for sentencing bills and build the capacity to model policies over realistic time horizons. That isn't soft or tough on crime, it's honest accounting to understand how policy impacts spending.
The testimony also pointed to where we can get better public safety for less money. A significant share of Montana's prison population, roughly 14 percent revoked from probation and 27 percent from parole, is there for supervision revocations rather than new convictions. Ten states have cut violation admissions by half or more with no increase in violent crime, using graduated sanctions that match the response to the violation and earned-time credits that reward completing treatment, education, and job training. Accountability should change behavior, not just fill beds. Montana took a good first step in 2025 with Senate Bill 70, which lets probation and parole officers remove supervision conditions that no longer serve a purpose if there are no objections.
Two more points hit close to home. First, veterans: Montana ranks third in the nation for veterans per capita, and nationally veterans are significantly overrepresented behind bars, often because service-connected conditions like PTSD or traumatic brain injury went unaddressed. Nationally, veterans account for roughly 8 percent of state prison populations or about six times their share of the civilian population. Montana has veterans’ treatment courts in Great Falls, Missoula, Billings, Butte, and Bozeman, and the Cascade County court was just named one of only five national mentor courts by the Department of Justice. But a veteran in rural Montana often has no such option. Nebraska recently became the first state to adopt the Veterans Justice Act, which puts diversion in statute statewide: veterans whose offenses are linked to service-related conditions enter supervised treatment with real accountability, complete the program or face the original charges. That is a model worth studying here in Montana.
Second, rural Montana: 23 counties and eight judicial districts lack access to a drug court or other problem-solving court, and much of our state is a designated mental health shortage area. When treatment isn't available locally, incarceration becomes the default, and that is the most expensive, least effective option on the menu.
Our communities deserve protection from crime. People who cause harm should be held responsible in ways that actually change behavior. And every taxpayer deserves a system that delivers results, not just costs. I will keep you updated on this discussion.
It is an honor to serve you.
Brad Barker Representative House District 55 (Carbon County) brad@bradbarker.com bradbarker.com 406-426-1034 facebook.com/Representative.Barker
