GREAT FALLS
Fort Belknap officials said they were closing the tribal jail Friday, citing continuing cuts in federal funding. Tribal Police Chief Moses Dionne said the tribe can no longer afford to pay for staffing and other facility expenses. "Pretty much all the needs for the jail can't be met," he said. "We will have no choice but to shut it down." Pat Ragsdale, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services, said Friday: "I told them I would look at their situation when I got back to Washington, D.C. "What I have promised them is we will find beds for their prisoners in the interim," Ragsdale told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from New Mexico. Most prisoners from the reservation will be transferred to the Hill County Detention Center in Havre, about 40 mi les away. The BIA has agreed to pay between $55 and $65 a day to house each prisoner, Dionne said. "They have a hard time understanding why I can find money to do that and I just don't add it to their program," Ragsdale said. He said the temporary funding must be available to tribes all over the country. Six or seven Fort Belknap jail employees will lose their jobs because of the closure. "The downs ide for our department is we're losing good detention staff," Dionne said. The tribe said the BIA allocated $74,000 this year to pay for housing inmates on the Fo r t B e l k n a p I n d i a n Reservation, while tribal officials estimate the actual cost to be about $400,000. The total amount of money the reservation receives from the BIA for law enforcement has been cut by $50,000 to $120,000 each year since 2003, Dionne said. The tribal government received $990,000 this year. A larger, more modern jail is being built on the reservation. The $1.7 million detention center should be finished in October. Loren "Bum" Stiffarm, Fort Belknap tribal chief administrative officer, estimated in January that it would cost $726,000 annually to staff the larger facility. "If the Bureau of Indian Affairs doesn't provide the funding, I don't see it opening," Dionne said. Earlier this year, tribal leaders met with a representatives from U.S. Sen. Max Baucus' office and traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for more money. Baucus' spokeswoman, Sara Kuban, said the senator is working to find a solution. (AP)
