KALISPELL — Montana’s first-ever state-run Reentry Center in the Flathead is set to begin taking residents next week.
A reentry center is a residential facility that helps people transition from incarceration to community living.
The new facility sits on the border of Kalispell and Evergreen on East Oregon Street.
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“We found this location, which was just amazing, and we knew as soon as we walked through it that this was the place,” said Montana Department of Corrections Director Brian Gootkin.
Gootkin and colleagues gave a tour on Wednesday of the new 90-bed reentry center opening in the Flathead.
“They tried to put one up here decades ago, that failed, and then we started about a year and a half ago once the legislature allocated the money," said Gootkin.
The Flathead County Board of Adjustment agreed in April to settle with the Montana Department of Corrections over a lawsuit that was filed after the board initially rejected the reentry center last October.
Gootkin said a reentry center was long overdue in the Flathead.
“To make sure that especially the people that are from here, that are sentenced from here, stay here when it’s appropriate, and that was pretty much our argument or the reasoning behind trying to get something up here,” said Gootkin.
Watch previous coverage: New prerelease center set to open next month in Flathead County
The first residents are expected to join the facility starting next week; the average length of stay is six months.
“At this point in time, we have just over 20 folks hired here, and we are hiring more staff,” said Flathead Valley Reentry Center Operations Manager Jim Sanderson.
Sanderson said residents will be joining the facility in phases.
Residents will be undergoing strict drug and alcohol testing, case management sessions and group therapy, along with mandatory employment.
“We will give them every opportunity, we will give them everything we can possibly give them to be successful, it’s up to them to see to that and accept it, and if they do, I think you will see recidivism rates drop dramatically,” said Sanderson.
