Last summer, Montana created a list of more than a dozen upgrades for its state prison facilities to protect inmates and staffers from coronavirus infections, all of which would be paid for with nearly $2.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief money.
But the money, part of $700 million in aid to states to detect and mitigate COVID-19’s spread in prisons, jails and other confinement facilities, sat untouched as of mid-February. Not a single project has begun despite the omicron surge that led to a new outbreak of COVID-19 cases among Montana State Prison inmates in January. That delay has left weak points within Montana’s secure facilities.
The holdup is the result of concerns that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised after reviewing the spending plan submitted by the state Nov. 8. The state’s budget included only Montana Department of Corrections facilities, with no information on how the state would help county jails or other community confinement facilities, according to documents that KHN obtained through a public records request to the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.
