By Evelyn Pyburn

A contingent of state legislators, Billings and other state leaders, in various capacities, will be making a trip to Rapid City, South Dakota to tour their detention facility, the Pennington County Jail, to find out how they operate and possibly learn new ideas about how to deal with some aspects of Yellowstone County’s crime issues.

The trip will serve a two-fold purpose, according to City Councilwoman Jennifer Owen.  Some of those going on the trip are members of the sub-committee appointed by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) to explore all aspects of the county’s justice system, including the possible expansion of the jail, and others will be focused on how they deal with their pre-arraignment process and diversion program.

Owen is part of the CJCC subcommittee, as is County Commissioner Mark Morse and state legislator, Barry Usher, who will also be going on the tour. There will be others going on the trip from city and county leadership, as well as a number of state legislators.

 About the subcommittee, Owen explained, “We are looking at every possible thing we can do to make it [the justice system] work better.”  A separate “overarching” project is to build a temporary holding facility. With that in mind, there will be some investigation by the tour group into a pre-arraignment facility.

The City is pushing for the temporary holding facility, hoping to get a contract with Yellowstone County to operate it, and that it will be operational in a matter of months – at least by the end of 2024. The City has included a half million dollars in its budget to pursue the project, and anticipate that there may be a need to appropriate more funds. By law, only the County can operate a jail or prison, which is why the City will negotiate a two or three year contract with the County to operate a facility to hold misdemeanor cases immediately after being arrested for up to 72 hours as they wait to see a judge.

In having to deal with an over-crowded jail, a scenario that currently occurs regularly, is that a law officer will charge someone who, for example, is drunk and disorderly, only to have to leave them “on the streets,” since they don’t have a place to hold them. Invariably they will encounter that same person again later in the same night perpetrating another crime. “They can end up having multiple outstanding warrants and multiple crimes in one evening,” said Owen. It is instances such as this that a temporary holding facility is expected to curb.

The idea is to fund short- term, temporary structures that are flexible, which will allow officials to evaluate, over a two or three year period, the holding facility’s impact on crime and whether the facility impacts the jail – the Yellowstone County Detention Facility — population. The data collected will be beneficial in knowing what is needed in expanding the jail. According to Owen there are a number of vendors that offer a variety of units that can be rented.

County Commissioner Morse commented that where the information they gather will lead is uncertain. It will help in determining whether a temporary holding facility is possible and how it might fit in with other strategies, as well as helping to clarify uncertainties about adding onto the jail.  No matter what they do, a temporary holding facility would have to be located in proximity to the jail in order to access support services such as medical care, kitchen, laundry, administration, etc.

Among other options that the subcommittee is looking at is information brought by Justice of the Peace David Carter regarding a management program that will unify the courts and improve the ability of the courts to get data out of the system, which means, for example, a judge will know if a defendant before him has other outstanding warrants, etc.

County Attorney Scott Twito, who heads the CJCC, is also overseeing the sub-committee, which is meeting on a weekly basis, and is comprised of city and county officials, law enforcement, judges, and a legislator.