HELENA — As of Thursday, the Montana Department of Corrections says all state inmates housed out of state are now located at a detention center in Mississippi. The move is estimated to save more than a million dollars for the state annually, but family members of inmates say the distance adds significant challenges and burdens to already difficult situations.
(WATCH: All Montana inmates housed out of state are now located in Mississippi)
Until a few years ago, Montana prisoners were all housed in the state. But that changed in 2023, when the first group of inmates was transferred to the Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy, Arizona. The Department of Corrections has cited overcrowding at Montana detention facilities for the need to move some of the population out of state.
KC Betchie’s brother, Trevor Case, is one of the inmates who has been transferred to Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi.
“It's been frustrating, just him being so far away,” she told MTN.
Betchie says she’s always had a good relationship with her brother, ever since they were kids.
“We always just stayed really close. We would hang out together a lot,” Betchie noted.
Case is an Army veteran, and there were concerns about his mental health following his service.
In 2021, a welfare check was called in on Case, with worry that he was suicidal. When Anaconda police entered his home, they encountered Case as he exited a closet with a handgun, and an officer shot him.
“I had a friend contact me, let me know that he was in the hospital and that he had a gunshot wound,” recalled Betchie. “And I was afraid that it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. So I had no idea that there was any kind of, like, police involvement or anything like that.”
Case was later convicted of felony assault on a peace officer, and a judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison with 5 suspended.
After being denied by prerelease centers, he was sent to Crossroads Correctional Center near Shelby, a for-profit prison run by CoreCivic. It wasn’t long before he was transferred more than 1,000 miles away to another CoreCivic prison.
“We weren't informed that he was going to be moved to Arizona,” Betchie noted. “It was kind of hearsay that Montana inmates were being moved from Shelby to Deer Lodge and then from Deer Lodge to an out-of-state prison. I thought, well, surely it's not him. He doesn't have a very long sentence.”
A visit that was just a few hours' drive and a tank of gas, became two full days of flying and hotel rooms for the full trip.
“Significantly more expensive to travel out of state, because traveling to anywhere in the United States from Montana is astronomically expensive,” Betchie noted.
Montana prisons are currently over capacity. As of April 22nd, Montana’s adult male prison population is 2,939. Of those inmates, 571 are housed out of state.
On Wednesday, the state moved the final prisoners located in Arizona to Tutwiler, Mississippi, a small town about an hour and a half drive from Memphis, Tennessee.
“This decision to concentrate our entire out-of-state male prison population in one location allows the department to provide greater consistency to our out-of-state inmates while being efficient and focused in leveraging our contracts,” said Montana DOC Director Eric Strauss. “With this transfer, inmates will have improved access to services and opportunities including jobs, programming, and education.”
The State of Montana contract with CoreCivic for the out-of-state prisoners runs from 7/1/25 to 6/30/27. DOC estimates approximately 600 inmates will be housed in Mississippi, and there is no required minimum number of prisoners the state needs to send there.
According to DOC, the cost of each inmate per day at the Mississippi facility is $83.64, and will increase to $85.31 as of 7/1/26. The current per-day rate at Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby is $93.84, increasing to $95.72 on July 1.
The State of Montana says for State Fiscal Year 2025, the average cost per day at Montana State Prison for an inmate was $108.02, excluding medical expenses.
When determining what inmates are sent out of state, DOC considers custody level, proximity to parole eligibility, participation in/need for treatment or other programming, physical and mental health needs, separation needs, family connections, and other specific factors. Staff members from multiple disciplines within the department contribute to the decisions.
Betchie says she was planning on visiting her brother in Arizona in May, and was glad she hadn’t finalized her plane tickets.
“Somebody else said, looks like he's in Mississippi. And I was like, ‘Oh, I literally checked that website a couple of hours ago, and I thought he was still in Arizona,’” she noted.
DOC says neither inmates nor family members are notified in advance of a transfer to another facility for security reasons.
Betchie wishes there were better efforts from the prisons to communicate with families. She understands the need for security, but even being told that the family member is up to be transferred without specifics of the new location would go a long way.
“Being completely transparent with what's happening with our loved ones so that we can kind of prepare for that,” she noted. “Just mentally prepare for it, because not only is it stressful on the inmates, it is extremely stressful on families.”
Betchie worries about the mental health of her brother, being isolated from the positive influences of family and friends.
“Being out of state has definitely been extremely difficult on him, because he feels disconnected from his home state, from his family, and from his friends,” she explained. “So, needless to say, his mental health has probably declined.”
Right now, the state is working on a $306 million expansion at the Montana State Prison that would add more than 900 more beds. There is hope that out-of-state housed inmates will be brought back to Montana once it’s finished, but that construction isn’t slated to be completed until January 2029.
“We’re extremely grateful to Governor Gianforte and Montana legislators for their investment in our correctional infrastructure,” Director Strauss said. “The new units will allow us to bring our out-of-state inmates back to Montana to receive the services they need to succeed when they return to the community. In addition, they can be closer to their loved ones while they prepare for that.”
