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Staffing woes at detention center

Hill County to turn away Blaine County inmates

The Hill County Detention Center has been experiencing some staffing issues and must now turn away Blaine County inmates.

Blaine County Sheriff Glenn Huestis said he and his office will have to move their inmates out of the Hill County Detention Center March 1.

"We're working on taking them to Valley County," Huestis said.

Transporting inmates to and from Blaine to Valley County is going to cause some logistical problems for the Blaine County Sheriff's Office.

Huestis said that they will still be able to keep inmates for 72 hours or less at HCDC, but any stay over that time will have to be spent in Valley County.

The trip from Chinook, the county seat of Blaine County, to Glasgow, where the Valley County Detention is located, is around 137 miles. From Chinook to the Hill County facility, it is around 23 miles.

Hill County Sheriff Don Brostrom said Hill County officals are in ongoing discussion as to what their options are.

"We're in a critical situation with staffing," Brostrom said. " ... We've exhausted everything we can do to attract staff."

The detention center is having a difficult time getting anyone to apply with competition from the Bakken, other business in Havre and other factors competing against it.

Brostrom said that in conversations with the county commission, he has made it clear that the detention center has a major problem with staffing and cannot operate at its current level without more people.

Currently, Hill County Detention Center staff start off at $11.71 per hour and receive benefits that include insurance, vacation leave and retirement plans. The detention center takes both full-time and part-time employees.

"We need to make some very major changes," Brostrom said.

Michael Wendland, the chair of Hill County commissioners, said that this move was made to combat the problems detention center is facing.

"We have kind of a shortage of personnel at the detention center," Wendland said. "Rather than get into a situation where we don't have staffing, we're going to have to look at different options."

The HCDC also holds prisoners for the Montana Highway Patrol and other entities, but contracts restrict Hill County from turning their prisoners away for the time being.

Havre Police Department and Hill County Sheriff's Office are not going to see any changes in the way they handle their prisoners, Wendland said.

He added that as of yet, there are no set plans for any changes to the way the detention center operates in the future.

"We just have to take it a day at a time as we move forward with this," Wendland said. " ... We look forward to being able to staff and keep the detention center able to run as we have been running it."

 

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