Pre-release panel to change procedures

A 12-person local working committee, appointed jointly in January 2008 by city and county officials, now is responsible for choosing new areas as possible sites for a proposed 40-bed pre-release center in the Kalispell area.

The first site, on Kalispell's south side, was rejected in May by area residents.

Committee members voted Thursday morning to wait about six weeks, or until the Montana Department of Corrections finalizes an amendment to its administrative rules, to begin selecting specific geographic areas, according to Bonnie Olson, working committee chairwoman and Flathead County District Court administrator.

The amendment would rewrite the department's rules to allow the working committee to choose any area capable of complying with city or county zoning regulations, rather than being limited to areas already in compliance.

However, the Department of Corrections issued a legal opinion this month finding that a pre-release center not being listed as a conditional land use shouldn't disqualify a proposed site until the application for a variance is denied.

The first site considered for the pre-release center, the old Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services building at 2282 U.S. 93 South, was selected during the state-level bidding process instead of by the local committee.

Sites proposed in three bids rejected by the department all are in south Kalispell near U.S. 93 and within about a mile of each other, but other areas around the city also are feasible.

About half a dozen people with ties to the Evergreen area showed up for the committee's Thursday meeting after rumors began circulating that officials were considering a new site there. Several spoke against putting a pre-release center in Evergreen.

Olson, however, denied that committee members had even considered a new site, never mind one in Evergreen.

"We have not chosen a site," she said. "We are the committee that would have done that, so I think we would have known about it."

Department officials have said they will work with bid-winner Community, Counseling and Correctional Services (a Butte-based nonprofit that operates 12 detention or treatment facilities in three states' to find alternative sites and are not expected to reopen the project for further bidding.

Under a new application of the state rules, a survey to gauge the support of residents surrounding the proposed site will now be conducted prior to the project going before the city or county government for final approval.

"When the survey becomes the very last thing and you have to hang your hat on it, it doesn't seem quite right," Olson said.

In proceedings separate from the Department of Corrections, the Kalispell City Council approved the first proposed site in April - passing an ordinance rezoning 1.78 acres from general business to public use and issuing a conditional-use permit for the facility's operation - only to have nearby residents reject it.

According to state rules, the approval of property owners within a half mile of the proposed location must be secured. But a survey, conducted by Montana State University-Billings, found that 74 percent of respondents opposed the site.

Officials have been clear that the debate is now more about siting the facility than whether a pre-release center should be built. In its 2007 session, the state Legislature appropriated $1.9 million to fund a pre-release center in Northwest Montana for its first year.

And while corrections officials have said they are committed to bringing the facility to the Kalispell area, the Lake County Leader reported Thursday that department representatives have contacted Lake County commissioners about the possibility of building the pre-release center in Polson.

"It's all very preliminary right now," Lake County Commissioner Bill Barron is quoted as saying. "The state still wants to put one in Kalispell, but if they can't get it passed, they asked us if we would be interested in a center in Polson."

Flathead County has more than 1,300 people in the state corrections system and is the only large county in Montana without a pre-release center. Lake and Lincoln counties contribute another 650 offenders.

Because there is no pre-release center here, about 80 offenders from this region are in other centers across the state.

In the past seven years, 900 offenders from Flathead County have spent time in pre-release centers at Missoula, Bozeman, Butte, Billings, Helena and Great Falls. Half of those offenders moved back to Flathead County after their release.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com