Montana youth detention center to close

DEER LODGE (AP) — The youth detention center near Deer Lodge will close in January and will be taken over by the state.

The Reintegrating Youthful Offenders facility has been operated the past 12 years by Butte-based Community, Counseling and Correctional Services Inc.

Company CEO Mike Thatcher tells The Montana Standard that placement of offenders at the facility has declined sharply in recent years.

The facility primarily serves the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and Native American reservations across Montana.

Gov. Steve Bullock’s office says the state will lease the facility in conjunction with the Montana State Hospital at Warm Springs.

Reintegrating Youthful Offenders has 48 employees.

Thatcher says that the company would try to absorb most of the employees into its 15 other programs.