Montana
Auditors: Montana DOC fails to provide education, training to meet demand; lacks data • Daily Montanan
A new legislative audit report released Monday tells lawmakers it’s unclear if inmates with the Montana Department of Corrections are receiving much education or instruction because the data and record-keeping within the agency is either non-existent or so incomplete that it was nearly impossible for auditors to perform their tasks.
Furthermore, some of the programs offered through the Department of Corrections seemed to do little for inmates who face re-entry into a market hungry for employees, and those same inmates gain little in terms of practical skills.
For years, lawmakers and auditors have focused on the Montana Department of Correction’s education and rehabilitation — and for good reason. Statistics provided by the auditors show that when inmates are put through educational or vocational programs, their chances at recidivism, or reoffending, drop significantly.
Around one-third of inmates who enter the Department of Corrections do not have a high-school diploma. By state policy, those inmates should be enrolled in programming that will help them complete a diploma-equivalency, the report said.
“Research indicates that participating in educational and vocational programs can decrease recidivism by a third,” the audit report said.
For more than four years, lawmakers have been pressuring the state’s Corrections Department to update its offerings. In 2020, the performance audit completed by the Legislative Audit Division compared state and contracted facilities, but that report determined the Department of Corrections was not monitoring or comparing education, which resulted in lawmakers recommending “a formal, data-driven approach.”
“This portion of the recommendation was not completed,” the auditors found.
A response from the Montana Department of Corrections
The Montana Department of Corrections released a statement and provided information regarding this audit report. Department of Education Services Bureau Chief Travis Anderson said:
The Montana Department of Corrections appreciated the opportunity to assist the Legislative Audit Division in its “Evaluating Education and Training in Montana’s Prisons” audit of education and career training in Montana prisons (2020 – 2022). We are pleased to note that the DOC had already identified many of the areas in which LAD (Legislative Audit Division) provided recommendations in its report delivered in 2024 and has already made significant progress on those. The department recognizes the pivotal role educational opportunities in prison play in the future success of offenders when they return to Montana communities and strives to ensure the relevance of its programming to help ensure the best possible outcomes for offenders.
The department is particularly proud of new educational programming being offered at our facilities including:
- The Last Mile computer coding class. Our second cohort of students at Montana State Prison recently reached the half-way mark in their programming and are on target to graduate in September. For more on this, please click here.
- Second Chance Pell (now Prison Education Programs – PEPs). The DOC offers PEP programming in partnership with Helena College to allow students to earn their Certificates in Applied Science in Auto Technology and with Dawson Community College for Associate of Arts in Chemical Dependency Counseling. The second cohort of students in the Applied Science in Auto Technology program will graduate on May 6 at Montana State Prison. For more on this, please click here.
In 2022, a report showed that one of the department’s largest contractors, Core Civic Corrections, was embroiled in a cheating scandal for inmates utilizing the education programs there. After that incident, though, it appears that the educational programming either stopped temporarily or was restarted with little tracking. Meanwhile, the 2024 audit report also said that educational and work-training programs have been moved and reorganized so many times that tracking data is “underdeveloped or (does) not exist.”
The audit report had four key findings:
- The Montana Department of Corrections does not maintain usable program data to assess education and work program performance and compliance, and the department does not monitor recidivism.
- Education and work programs across the state do not meet demand and are not regularly assessed to ensure relevance or quality.
- Inmates are not consistently provided education, career counseling or re-entry assistance.
- Contracted secure facilities, like Core Civic, in some cases have even more problems with education programs.
No tracking equals no data
The auditors and the report itself released by the Legislative Audit Division repeatedly pointed out that officials couldn’t say much definitively because the data and tracking was either so sparse or incomplete.
“The Department of Corrections lacked accurate records for inmate education and work participation across public and private facilities. The data management procedures for this program are inadequate or absent,” the report said. “We intended to use department records to assess program performance and compliance with the law, policy and best practices. However, while obtaining and reviewing the records, we realized that there were significant deficiencies in the data management practices.”
A deeper look into the problem with data reveals that information about an inmate’s work history or education could be in as many as six different software programs and servers.
The report details years of lost data at the Montana Women’s Prison. And many facilities don’t track “milestone” achievements like receiving a certificate of completion or even a high-school diploma equivalency.
The report said that auditing staff worked for months in an attempt to either resurrect or rebuild data. When the auditors did receive data, it was “inaccurate, incomplete, or difficult to decipher.”
“We found errors in student records including impossible date ranges, incorrectly identified information and duplicate entries,” the report said.
The problems with the data didn’t just present problems for auditors.
“It’s unclear which programs are most effective, and accurate information on course achievement is necessary to assess interventions,” the report said. “The Board of Pardons and Parole also reported lacking information on education and training accomplishments for parole consideration.”
High demand, few opportunities
What little data was available to auditors showed that there’s high demand among the incarcerated population in Montana, with as many as three out of four inmates wanting the opportunity, but not receiving a chance.
“Education and work program opportunities at Montana’s secure facilities are limited, with long waitlists and inconsistently relevant programs,” the report said. “Inmates’ opportunities to access beneficial programs are not equitable between private and public facilities.”
Not only is there high demand among inmates, which auditors say the Department of Corrections cannot meet, it also found that some of the programs’ quality was lacking, leading to a mismatch between the training inmates receive and what is expected in the workforce.
“Work program opportunities cannot meet inmate demand, do match inmate interest or state workforce needs, often do not provide industry-recognized credentials and are not regularly assessed to ensure enough continued relevance or quality,” the report said.
And the auditors found that 75% of those who had been accepted into a program received no classes or less than one day of instruction. The ripple effect from the lack of education has left even the prison system with a deficit of workers with skills.
“Despite the expected overestimation of participation from this data, it also shows that most of the individuals (63%) received no education or work program opportunities between 2020 and 2022. Nearly a third have not worked a single job,” auditors said.
It also appears that leaders within the Department of Corrections are not monitoring the programs, or looking for ways to improve or update the education.
“Programs are not assessed for feasibility, market strength, or cost-effectiveness prior to implementation or on an ongoing basis to ensure the time, space, and resources are going to programs that serve the most inmates and the state in the most inmates in the most effective way possible,” the audit said.
The report documents that it’s hard for inmates to be prepared for re-entry into society with few new skills and even less help from prison staff. For example, other states have career counselors that help inmates begin preparing for education. Seventy-nine percent of inmates have said they’ve never met with a staff person to discuss education.
“Case managers shared that they do not often advise inmates on education or job skill needs, and were not all aware related categories existed in the risk and and needs assessment,” the report said. “Case managers do not typically assist inmates until approximately one month before a parole hearing.”
The risk, the auditors note, isn’t just that inmates being released from prison will fail, but ultimately the lack of education opportunities will become a problem for the facilities and the department.
“Lack of support for inmates to obtain education and training increases idle time, may lead to more dangerous prisons, increases subsequent recidivism rates and results in an inefficient use of limited education resources,” the audit said.
Problems at contracted facilities
Auditors also noted that it wasn’t just state-run facilities, like the men’s prison in Deer Lodge, or the state’s women’s prison in Billings, that were problematic. Instead, they noted that other facilities in the state, namely Core Civic in Shelby and Dawson County Correctional Facility, which contract with the state, have, in many cases, even worse educational programming.
“Private facility contract requirements mandate some educational and job opportunities to facilitate inmate reform,” the report said. “However, these facilities are failing to meet their contracted obligations.”
Several of the facilities say they cannot afford to hire staff. For example, Core Civic said that its average monthly teacher vacancy rate reached as high as 51%, the report said. Furthermore, there are penalties in the contracts that these private companies can face if they don’t offer education.
“Based on SFCB (Secured Facilities Contract Bureau) records, we estimate that in 2021, more than $100,000 in fines were not levied to address minimum teacher shortfalls,” the report said.
22P-04
In these Montana towns a stranger rarely stays a stranger for long. Shopkeepers in Philipsburg know their regulars by name. Bigfork neighbors fill the same theater seats every summer. Livingston locals still swap trail tips with visitors over coffee. The welcome here comes from people who greet newcomers like they belong. These eight communities show what small-town Montana hospitality looks like up close.
Whitefish
Whitefish sits within an hour of Glacier National Park, and that proximity shapes everything about the town. Central Avenue runs on covered Old West walkways lined with local shops, restaurants, and galleries, and the crowd shifts with the seasons as skiers give way to summer hikers.
Glacier National Park draws visitors with hundreds of miles of hiking trails, alpine lakes, and the scenic Going-to-the-Sun Road. Closer to town, Whitefish Lake offers public beaches, boat rentals, paddleboarding, and fishing during the warmer months. When winter arrives, Whitefish Mountain Resort becomes the area’s main attraction, with ski runs, snowboarding terrain, and gondola rides overlooking the Flathead Valley. Even after a day outdoors, many visitors return to downtown Whitefish to browse local shops or settle in at the town’s restaurants and breweries.
Bigfork
Sitting on the northeastern shore of Flathead Lake, Bigfork pairs a working harbor with a downtown built around its artists. Galleries and studios cluster within a few walkable blocks, and the water is never out of sight for long.
Flathead Lake is the town’s biggest draw, with boating, kayaking, fishing, and swimming on the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River in the lower 48 states. Just offshore, Wild Horse Island State Park lets visitors hike among native wildlife, including wild horses, bighorn sheep, bald eagles, and mule deer. Theater lovers can catch a Broadway-style production at Bigfork Summer Playhouse, which has staged live performances for decades. Before leaving town, visitors can browse the independently owned galleries and studios showcasing paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and other work by Montana artists.
Philipsburg
Philipsburg made its money in silver, and the painted storefronts along Broadway Street date to those boom years. The old buildings now hold local businesses, and the mining past is easy to trace from one block to the next.
A visit to Gem Mountain Sapphire Mine lets visitors sift through mining gravel for Montana sapphires, many of which can be cut into finished gemstones. Just outside town, Granite Ghost Town State Park preserves the remains of a silver mining community, with abandoned buildings that mark the region’s boom years. Those interested in local history can stop at the Granite County Museum, where exhibits cover the area’s mining industry and early settlement. Before leaving, many visitors make time for The Sweet Palace, a candy store that has become one of the town’s signature stops.
Livingston
Livingston sits on the Yellowstone River and serves as a northern gateway to Yellowstone National Park. Restored commercial buildings house an active arts scene, and the Absaroka Range rises just south of the rooflines.
The historic downtown works as the town’s main visitor area, with independent bookstores, outfitters, cafes, and long-standing local businesses inside restored commercial buildings. At the Yellowstone Gateway Museum, exhibits trace the region’s history through Indigenous presence, railroad expansion, and early settlement in the Yellowstone Valley. Small galleries across the downtown core show work by regional artists whose subjects often reflect the river valley and the mountains around it.
Red Lodge
Red Lodge marks the start of the Beartooth Highway, one of the highest paved roads in the country. Its compact, walkable downtown keeps locally owned shops and restaurants busy in every season.
The Beartooth Highway climbs into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and continues toward Yellowstone National Park, with steep mountain passes, alpine lakes, and long-range views. In winter, Red Lodge Mountain becomes a major recreation area for skiing and snowboarding, with terrain that draws residents and visitors alike. During the warmer months, hiking trails in the surrounding mountains open onto forests, ridgelines, and wildlife viewing areas. Downtown Red Lodge stays active year-round, with local businesses and historic buildings packed into a walkable core.
Choteau
Choteau sits where the prairie meets the Rocky Mountain Front, and dinosaurs put it on the map. Fossil beds nearby produced some of the most important dinosaur nesting discoveries in North America, and the town leans into that history.
At the Old Trail Museum, exhibits cover the region’s natural history, including fossil finds and artifacts tied to its prehistoric past. The surrounding country is known for wildlife viewing, with elk, deer, and many bird species in the foothills and open plains near town. Just outside Choteau, fossil sites linked to major dinosaur discoveries have built the area’s reputation in paleontology research. The Rocky Mountain Front opens onto hiking routes and wide viewpoints where the plains give way to the peaks.
Stevensville
Stevensville is the oldest permanent settlement in Montana, founded in 1841 as St. Mary’s Mission. It sits in the Bitterroot Valley between the Bitterroot and Sapphire mountains, and the town center still runs at a slower pace.
St. Mary’s Mission is the town’s most significant landmark, preserving the mission’s early buildings and marking the first permanent Euro-American settlement in what became Montana. The Bitterroot Valley around Stevensville is known for its orchards, farmland, and mountain views, and it serves as a corridor to nearby communities and recreation areas. Local boutiques and small shops fill a compact town center that reflects its long history. Hiking trails in the nearby foothills reach forested terrain, open meadows, and views of the Bitterroot Mountains, drawing the most traffic during the warmer months.
Virginia City
Virginia City boomed after an 1863 gold strike in Alder Gulch, and much of that town survived. Wooden boardwalks, original storefronts, and period buildings still line the Main Street, so a walk here doubles as a walk through the 1860s.
Historic structures throughout the town can be toured to see how miners, shopkeepers, and early settlers lived during the gold rush era. Several small museums and preserved buildings cover mining equipment, frontier life, and local governance during the 1800s. Costumed interpreters run seasonal reenactments as well, recreating daily routines and events from Virginia City’s early years.
Small Towns Worth the Detour
These eight towns show how much Montana packs into its smaller communities. Livingston and Whitefish put national parks within reach of a walkable downtown, while Philipsburg and Virginia City keep their mining-era streets intact and open to visitors. Choteau turns fossil country into a point of local pride, and Stevensville carries the state’s oldest roots. Anyone looking for genuine small-town hospitality will find plenty of it across these Montana communities.
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 9, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from July 9 drawing
08-21-24-29, Bonus: 16
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 9 drawing
02-15-22-54-58, Bonus: 04
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
A restraining order has been issued that blocks the Montana Republican Party from enacting new bylaws intended to drive nonconformists…
A restraining order has been issued that blocks the Montana Republican Party from enacting new bylaws intended to drive nonconformists out of the party ranks.
Lewis and Clark County District Judge Michael F. McMahon issued the restraining order Wednesday morning. The order had been requested by county precinct committees and officers suing the state party organization over the new bylaws. The plaintiffs are the Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee, the Choteau County Republican Central Committee, and individual committee members Jeff Essmann, Ted Kronebusch, James Wilson and state Rep. Brad Barker, R-Red Lodge.
At issue are bylaws passed during MTGOP’s June platform convention that the litigating party members say amount to “fraudulent and corrupt practices.” The new bylaws require members to pay $20 in annual membership dues and pledge a loyalty oath, and subject members to removal from elected party positions for nonpayment of dues or for “conduct deemed inconsistent with party purposes,” as determined by executive party party officers. The new bylaws allow charges for removal to be brought by any 20 official Republican Party members.
Montana Republican Party Chairman Art Wittich, the only official spokesperson for the state party, has not responded to voicemails and texts sent to his cell phone Wednesday. Wittich, elected party chairman in June 2025, has long been emphatic about exposing “Democrats disguised as Republicans” — for Wittich a now decade-old battle that spun into a bitter multimillion-dollar war between party hardliners and relative centrists in this spring’s Republican legislative primaries.
The centrists drew the ire of the hardliners in 2025 by collaborating with Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and legislative Democrats to pass a balanced state budget and key pieces of legislation, including increased taxes on second homes and property tax reductions for primary residences and small businesses.
What constitutes disqualifying conduct isn’t fully spelled out in the bylaws, but they do specify that “collaborating with Democrats” in the Legislature, the governor’s office, the courts, or elections can get members disciplined or removed.
The lawsuit alleges that “The 2026 bylaws empower a small group within the party to revoke Republican affiliation from candidates or office holders, undoing primary nominations by the electorate.”
The plaintiffs argue that Montana voters, not party bylaws, should determine who represents the Republican Party in general elections and who represents voting precincts on the publicly elected county-level Republican committees that coordinate local political activity.
The Montana Legislature in 2019 passed a bill protecting publicly elected party precinct committee officers from being arbitrarily removed from office and defined attempts to do so as “fraudulent and corrupt practices.” That law, sparked by Republican Party infighting 10 years ago, is the foundation of the current lawsuit.
There has been a surge of public interest in Republican precinct-level politics following a perceived lack of support by party hardliners for Republican candidates in conservative strongholds like Flathead County, where more than 60 new precinct committeemen and committeewomen were elected in June. That wave of new officers was preceded by Flathead County Republican Central Committee members considering an endorsement of Libertarian Sid Daoud for Kalispell mayor over Republican Kisa Davison in late 2025. The Kalispell mayor’s race is nonpartisan, but Republicans have gone to court to secure the party’s right to endorse candidates in nonpartisan races.
Wittich’s own campaign for precinct committeeman representing Whitefish was a casualty of that new wave of public interest. He lost to Republican Giuseppe “G-man” Caltabiano, who serves on the Whitefish City Council.
Caltabiano’s wife, Roxanne Ross, defeated Candace Wittich, wife of the Republican chair, in the same election.
State law gives precinct officers two-year terms and specifies that they can be removed only for death, written resignation or loss of residency. The new bylaws state that participation in party governance, including service as a precinct official, “is a privilege of association, not a right conferred by public office or candidacy. Members must act in good faith to support the Party’s purpose and must not engage in conduct materially inconsistent with the Party’s interests, including conduct that undermines its platform, policy positions, election operations, or internal governance.”
The recent changes to the party bylaws allow precinct officeholders to be suspended from voting in party matters and replaced by party leadership for noncompliance. Empty precinct seats can be filled by the Republican Party chair.
“Every Republican candidate sells their version of Republicanism to the people in a primary campaign, and the voter chooses which version to buy,” the lawsuit states. “The party cannot dictate what brands of Republicanism are on the market.”
Former MTGOP chair Jeff Essmann, a plaintiff who is also a long-serving precinct officer, said in his affidavit that members of the Republican State Central Committee weren’t given a required notification about attempts to amend the bylaws. He said he would have attended the platform convention and argued against amending the bylaws if he had known.
“The 2026 Bylaws empower any twenty members of the Party to recommend any other member of the Party for expulsion from the party, to be determined by the State Central Committee, even people who do not reside in Yellowstone County and who have never met me,” Essmann said in the affidavit.
Other central committee members produced pre-convention emails about potential changes to the bylaws, but no details about the amendments.
In issuing the order, McMahon indicated that Republicans challenging the bylaws are likely to succeed. He set a July 13 hearing on whether to make the order permanent.
“Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims that the challenged provisions are inconsistent with Montana election law and constitutional protections governing candidacy, nomination, speech, association, due process, and elected precinct committee representatives,” McMahon ruled.
___
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Copyright
© 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
-
Los Angeles, Ca39 minutes agoKnee irritation forces Shohei Ohtani out of Friday start, All‑Star game
-
Detroit, MI1 hour agoDetroit Evening Report: Waymo cars blocking first responders – WDET 101.9 FM
-
San Francisco, CA1 hour agoSan Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie Blocks Vacant Grocery Store Tax Proposal | KQED
-
Miami, FL1 hour agoOregon Battling Miami, Mario Cristobal for Four-Star EDGE Recruit
-
Dallas, TX1 hour agoFC Dallas Forward Logan Farrington Inks Contract Extension
-
Boston, MA1 hour agoRed Sox face lengthy travel issues ahead of series vs. Mets
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoWhat’s going on with the Nuggets? Unpacking an NBA offseason on hold
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoSeattle Kraken Sign Goaltender Victor Östman and Defenseman Ville Ottavainen to One-Year Deals | Seattle Kraken
