The Montana Department of Corrections this month has quietly doubled its population of inmates held in a private Arizona prison facility.
Last year Montana contracted with CoreCivic to send 120 inmates to its Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, to ease an overcrowding problem so persistent that inmates have been backed up in county jails awaiting a prison bed. That deal provided CoreCivic about $8 million dollars for 120 beds over a two-year period.
The Department of Corrections’ publicly available online inmate population dashboard, however, listed 246 inmates at Saguaro as of Tuesday. Listings on the website show the 120 head count began ticking up on Aug. 8, to 149. By Aug. 13, 208 inmates were housed in Arizona and on Monday the tally was 239 Montana inmates.
After the Montana State News Bureau raised questions about the increase, the Department of Corrections provided an updated contract with CoreCivic for the additional 120, now totaling 240, recently obtained through the state procurement process. The rate from the original contract—$90 per bed per day—remains in place.
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The earlier contract was set from Nov. 1, 2023 through Oct. 31, 2025. The new contract amended the term to run from Aug. 1, 2024 through July 31, 2026.
“Managing Montana’s prison population has always been a challenge given limited bed space to handle fluctuations,” Department of Corrections Director Brian Gootkin said in a statement to the Montana State News Bureau on Wednesday. He added the department continues to work with lawmakers to address population needs, and has been taking measures to address those needs in the meantime.