Prison Programs/Education

The Therapeutic Community TEAM Program is an intensive drug treatment program at South Idaho Correctional Institution. The program has a 77% success rate and has had 601 graduates since 2001.

The Helena Independent Record recently published a feature giving more insight into how Montana’s pre-release centers work. The story New Lease on Life reveals that prisoners transferred into the Helena Pre-Release Center find jobs and in one year paid $48,000 in restitution and $147,000 in taxes.

Fewer people are going into Montana’s prison system, even though the offender population is projected to grow at 6.2%.

College Inside is a new college program at Oregon State Penitentiary, the state’s only maximum security prison. The program enables prisoners to earn college credit toward an Associates Degree.

The 2007 session of the Montana State Legislature approved a 41% increase over the next two years in the Department of Correction’s budget. The new budget cycle began on July 1, and the total budget for two years is $355.2 million.