New Fort Belknap jail lacks money to operate

Monday, January 28, 2008  

The federal government spent $1.7 million for a new detention facility on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana but there's not enough money to operate it.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs only has $74,000 in the budget for the detention and dispatch center. But the Fort Belknap Tribes say it will cost $400,000 to run the facility.

"That money is gone in three weeks," acting police Chief Ed Long Knife told The Great Falls Tribune. "We're already in the red."

The tribe's current jail was shut down in the wake of an Interior Department investigation into substandard detention facilities in Indian Country. It has since reopened but remains overcrowded and understaffed.

Get the Story:
Fort Belknap jail in trouble before it opens doors (The Great Falls Tribune 1/28)

DOJ Study:
Prisoners in 2006

Inspector General Final Jail Report:
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Inspector General Interim Jail Report:
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Department of Justice Jail Reports:
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