John Fitzpatrick

Lawmakers have given preliminary approval of $100,000 for a Select Committee on Corrections Capacity and System Development. 

The largest project in House Bill 817 — by over $100 million — would replace and expand lower-security housing at the state prison.

About $56 million is for bills from the fiscal year that's ending and $123 million is to cover unanticipated costs beyond what's in the state budget lawmakers are advancing. 

Montana State Prison Warden Jim Salmonsen called the raises "unprecedented" in his 34 years at the penitentiary.

"This gets us bed space right now, or as soon as the ink on the bill is dry," said Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda.

Lawmakers advanced bills to pave a road to a state park and put $267 million toward infrastructure projects around Montana.

Lawmakers and the state health department are at odds over how a proposal to fix a blunder at the state hospital may play out.

"The quality of life in the state of Montana depends on state employees doing their jobs."

The prison has anchored Deer Lodge for more than 150 years, about 20 years longer than Montana's statehood.

In rolling back a proposed change that critics say could have muzzled a consumer protection office, a state senator acknowledged the proposal was “a little controversial.”

Montana counties finished counting the 2022 general election’s provisional, military and overseas ballots Monday.