The 36-bed unit, on lease from Target Logistics for $35 per bed per day, will help address the Missouri River Correctional Center (MRCC) shortage of beds, as all 155 beds are taken. Work release inmates are set to begin moving in this week.
The single-bed rooms will provide privacy over the dormitory style housing, especially for those on work-release who have to work in the morning and need a good night’s sleep. Each pair of rooms is connected by a shared bathroom and shower.
A smaller attached unit provides a commons area and a kitchenette. It cost $60,000 to move the modules and reassemble them at Missouri River.
The corrections department had considered shipping some inmates to Colorado, but that would have placed minimum security inmates with medium or maximum security felons, which would not be a good mix.
Additionally, with the state facing a $1 billion budget shortfall because of the drop in oil field activity, sending inmates to another state would have cost more. Gov. Jack Dalrymple proposed $30 million in his 2015-17 executive budget to replace the MRCC with a larger facility because of flood damage and mold, but that was denied because of the revenue slowdown. This led Leann Bertsch, director of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, to say the modular unit may become a longer-term solution.
Target Logistics spokesman Randy Pruett said the housing unit had been used by a crew camp near Tioga to house workers for a specific project, and it was made to be moved as some projects ended and others began.
Don Redmann, director of facility operations for the corrections department, said the individual rooms help transition the inmates to the outside world. “One of the goals is to get them ready to live in the community again, and this is an important first step,” he said. It is also an incentive for the inmates to behave and earn a single room. ##
(Photo credit: Forum News Service/Mike Nowatzki– modular correctional facility)
