Top 5 Reasons Why This is the Most Dangerous Prison in Montana

One of the subjects I cover or write about most often is crime. In Montana, law enforcement has been on an absolute tear catching bad guys and putting them away.

But where do the worst of the worst go when they're charged and sent away?

Montana's "Old" State Prison

Before we dive into where the worst of the worst of Montana's criminals live, we have to understand where Montana's primary correctional facility once stood.

According to the history of the state prison from archived documents, Montana's first prison was created as a result of the Civil War.

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Documents reveal the territory of Montana had nowhere to place federal prisoners during the gold rush and Civil War in 1864. Under contract, federal prisoners were sent off to Nebraska State Penitentiary while criminals who violated territorial laws were housed at the county jail in Madison County.

On January 22, 1867, about $40,000 was set aside by Congress to construct a prison and according to records, an 11-and-4/5-acre site in Deer Lodge was chosen, much to the dismay of locals. Eventually, the U.S. Attorney's Office declared the government owned the land and could technically build what they wanted to.

Problems with the Original Montana State Prison

$40,000 might seem like a low number today but even back in the late 1800's, it was still considered a low amount for this magnitude of a project.

Apparently, Superintendent of Construction and Building, Dr. Armistead Hughes Mitchell notified officials overseeing the project that $40,000 wasn't enough and that the project would require closer to $100,000 to build.

Officials didn't budge.

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As a result, Dr. Mitchell began finding areas within the project where the team could save money, including using granite instead of concrete within the central building. Many experts saw this as a red flag and a sign of imminent disaster... they were right.

The prison encountered problems like overcrowding and decaying structure which forced officials to eventually shut the prison down in 1979. Thankfully, officials already began work on a new facility between 1974 and 1979 according to the University of Montana.

This is the facility the state of Montana currently uses today.

The Future of Montana State Prison

The Montana State Prison is currently going through a massive upgrade which includes updating outdated housing units, updating security, increasing bed capacity, and even bring back Montana prisoners that were sent out of state according to the Department of Corrections.

The project is expected to be completed by 2029.

Is This Montana's Most Dangerous Prison?

The prison has quite the history and one could argue that it is, in fact, Montana's most dangerous prison among all facilities in Montana.

Let's take a look at the top five reasons this could very well be Montana's most dangerous prison.