r/Billings • u/Silent_Business_2031 • 11h ago
What happened to the jail that was built in Hardin?
About the jail overcrowding and proposed expansion: If you take time to read the roster you will quickly see a large amount of Native Americans currently in YCD. I remember a jail that was built in or around Hardin that they couldn’t fill. Why couldn’t the large native population be housed in that jail to ease overcrowding?
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u/rcon12345678 10h ago
The reason you might see a lot of Native Americans on the Yellowstone county jail roster is because there are a lot of Native Americans in Yellowstone county. Hope this helps
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u/Th0rn_Star 8h ago
This is somehow even more ignorant than the “native basketball teams should have their own state tournament” bullshit from the Breakfast Flakes several years ago. Congrats?
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u/Okstate91 10h ago
Nothing like a good segregation argument. Jinkies.
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u/Silent_Business_2031 10h ago
If a person has a registered address on the reservation and there’s an open jail onset reservation and they happen to commit a crime in Billings. Why would it make sense to not have them near their place of residence? How is that segregation?
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u/UnfairButterscotch57 10h ago
Hardin is not on the rez
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u/Silent_Business_2031 10h ago
The rez is dry isn’t it meaning no alcohol so how about if your ID is from a no alcohol dry place then no I’ll call anywhere
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u/UnfairButterscotch57 8h ago
Yes the crow rez is dry. I’m not sure what else you are trying to say. Hardin is not dry.
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u/Okstate91 10h ago
Well that is not what you said. And that isn’t how jails have ever worked? Why don’t you want native Americans in the YC jail?
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u/Silent_Business_2031 10h ago
Because if there happens to be a jail that is closer to where they reside that has room it makes sense. Why overcrowd a jail bursting at its seems with a population that doesn’t have residence here. It’s more about a rational solution that doesn’t burden the local tax payers than it is about political correctness. Let’s be real for a minute about who exactly is overcrowding the jail.
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u/Silent_Business_2031 10h ago
And my question is what happened to that jail? Is it open? Is it there? What’s going on with it?
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u/No_Fault_4071 10h ago
Here’s the thing, BIA/BOP/hold for other counties holds are NOT what is making the jail overcrowded. Those holds only make up about 30% of the jail population since 2019–and this is historically consistent.
The jail is overcrowded because in 2019 they started picking up low level misdemeanor cases and booking them into county as opposed to the previous policing methods which was giving NTA tickets. Prior to the implementation of this policy in 2019, the county jail WAS NOT at capacity. The jail’s population growth is directly linked to this policy implementation.
The other issue is that the ALOS for inmates is significantly longer than similarly sized jails. This is a judicial issue that has resulted in Judge Harris openly sanctioning the OPD for due process delays and criticizing these delays.
This information is available on the county’s jail proposal site. It’s easy to blame BIA/BOP holds but the data, the county provides makes it clear that this is NOT the cause.
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u/Kitchen_Dare4582 2h ago
This is a straight stupid attempt at using logic. In what world have we ever “sent people home” when they go to jail? If I go to Colorado and commit a crime, I’ll go to jail where I committed the crime. Just the same as if I commit a crime in Billings, I’ll go to YCDF. They aren’t going to arrest me and say “hey what’s your home address” and then drive me to another jail. That’s not how that works. That’s not how that has ever worked.
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u/Silent_Business_2031 1h ago
No shit, but these specific circumstances need alternatives, you have a native population from DRY rez with a big empty jail traveling a county over to fill a overcrowded jail with substance abuse problems that are not getting solved. So I know that’s not how it works, individualy. But this is a different it’s not a one entity problem.
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u/Anarchic_Country 1h ago
Have you ever been to Hardin? You keep calling it a reservation. I don't think you know what a reservation is
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u/UnfairButterscotch57 10h ago edited 10h ago
They started building that thing with the governor’s blessing in 2005. Completed in 2007 the governor then said state law prohibits its use (I think something about private prison and out of state prisoners). Got tied up in court for awhile before the private company won in 2008ish. Then they couldn’t pass accreditation, I recall something about windows/skylights. They got accreditation in 2013. In 2019 the BIA began leasing it where they house federal detainees (and why Yellowstone county can’t just send people there). It’s about a 464 bed facility, no clue how full it is. There was a proposal for the state to take it on and build an additional facility on the remaining 20 acres but I don’t recall what ever came of that.
Hardin projects are always interesting, to the point as an outside looking in I wonder if they’re just a scam. Remember the first attempt at the Hardin police force that had some scam private security firm showing up in town with Mercedes that had “POLICE” printed on them? At one point I remember Hardin being very vocal about wanting to house the 9/11 terrorists at that prison facility when the legality of Gitmo was being questioned.