Some employees at Montana State Prison picket working conditions

DEER LODGE — A couple of dozen Montana State Jail staff picketed the safe facility Friday to boost public consciousness about working circumstances.

“We wished to do an info picket,” mentioned Cathy Clark, president of the jail worker union. “So the general public is aware of how harmful and the way hostile the work surroundings had been out right here.”

For a couple of 12 months, the Montana Division of Corrections has struggled to retain and recruit correctional officers at MSP. Staffing issues have strained DOC’s relationship with the jail worker union, the Federation of Montana State Jail Workers Native 4700. On the finish of July, a annoyed correctional officer tried to get kidnapping fees introduced towards his supervisors after the officer mentioned a member of command employees stored him locked in a management cage for about 20-Half-hour after his shift in an try to drive him into an extra shift. Jail officers have denied the officer’s characterization of the incident.

For about three and a half hours the picketers stood on the intersection of Conley Lake Street and Outdated Stage Street in Deer Lodge. The staff couldn’t picket on state land, Clark mentioned. Nonetheless, the Nationwide Labor Relations Board requires picketing to be achieved exterior the entity union members are protesting, she mentioned. This meant the informational picket meant to assemble public assist was held a couple of mile and a half east of the jail and two mile west of the Deer Lodge metropolis heart. Whereas a handful of individuals honked whereas driving previous the demonstrators, jail employees usually waved indicators at an empty highway.

Workers on the demonstration described the jail’s higher administration as unresponsive to worker issues and dismissive. Others complained about how psychological well being technicians couldn’t present providers the jail is required to supply to folks serving sentences.

Inmate manufacturing officer Kevin Hart works on the jail for Montana Correctional Enterprises, which is the state-owned enterprise run out of the jail and depending on the labor of incarcerated folks. Hart participated within the demonstration Friday. In his nearly twenty years working on the jail, Hart mentioned he is by no means seen employees so sad. Administration and employees aren’t working collectively, he mentioned. Nobody believes in what administration is doing as a result of DOC management would not talk, Hart mentioned.

In response to questions concerning the picket Monday, Montana Division of Corrections Director Brian Gootkin mentioned, in an emailed assertion, he makes common visits to the jail.

“The overwhelming majority of the employees I go to with are overwhelmingly constructive,” Gootkin mentioned. “And excited concerning the route we’re heading and respect the assist and communication they obtain from their management.”

Each Gootkin and Public Security Chief Jim Anderson have testified earlier than interim legislative committees concerning the division’s battle to rent correctional officers. At a jail board assembly in June, Montana State Girls’s Jail additionally reported issue hiring employees, and the ladies’s jail was down 15 correctional officers on the time.

Crossroads Correctional Heart, which is a non-public jail that DOC contracts with, additionally reported hiring points and mentioned it was bringing in correctional officers from out-of-state. When Crossroads’ has a vacant place for greater than 90 days, DOC can penalize the corporate by withholding contract funds. As of Aug. 2, the DOC had withheld about $390,000 in fiscal 12 months 2022.

At a Could assembly of the State Legislature’s Interim Regulation and Justice Committee, state Sen. Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, famous his grave issues concerning the “strain cooker” state of affairs on the state jail in Deer Lodge.