BIA takes over jail on Fort Belknap Reservation

After 20 years, the Bureau of Indian Affairs last week reassumed control over the jail on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation at the request of tribal officials. 

Fort Belknap Tribal President Mark Azure said tribal officials decided last week to return control of the detention facility to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The cost of operating the facility just wasn't in the budget, Azure said, so the council members reached out to the BIA office in Billings on Sept. 18 asking for assistance.

The federal agency is now fully operating the program, and conducting an evaluation of the program's needs. 

"It's not something that I think either side wanted," Azure said. "There was a lot more that needed to get done but there wasn't enough funding to do it."

There had been 11 employees at the jail, a mix of permanent and temporary employees. They weren't BIA employees, though, so all 11 lost their jobs and were replaced with federal employees.

"It was a difficult decision," Azure said. "In the end you're putting some of your own tribal members out of work. At the end of the day, if there just isn't enough money to fill a contract, what do you do?" 

The costs that needed covering were simply "operating the facility and caring for those that find themselves in there," he said. Azure said jail overcrowding is an issue at the facility, just like anywhere in the state. The 10-bed facility may have eight people one night, or 16 the next, he said. Azure didn't have a current number of inmates at the facility, and the Billings BIA office directed questions to a spokeswoman in Washington, D.C. 

"It doesn't matter what side of the boundary you're on, that's always an issue," he said. "When you get overcrowding, that eats up more of your budget."

Azure said the council has been weighing the decision during the last four years he's sat on the council, which discussed different options as to how to keep the facility under tribal administration and keep the employees on board. 

"It wasn't like we got up Monday morning and said let's give this back," he said. "It had been a long, hard discussion and decision. We felt it was in the best interest of the Fort Belknap community to give it back."

The BIA had previously provided detention services to the Fort Belknap community up until the late 1990s. In 1997, the local officials signed a contract with the federal agency for local administrators to operate the program. That ended at 8 a.m. sharp on Sept. 20, two days after current officials requested the changeover.

"They had their people back that morning of the 20th," Azure said. "We handed over the keys and they assumed detention services at that point."

Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, said in an email on Monday that the federal agency moved swiftly after the council's notification to return the detention program back to the BIA.

"The BIA's Office of Justice Services immediately dispatched a team to Ft. Belknap and on the morning of September 20th conducted an emergency reassumption of the program," she wrote. 

Darling said the BIA's Office of Justice Support is evaluating the facility and program needs. She also said the agency anticipates operating the detention program through the fiscal year 2018. Azure said it is possible the tribe can retake control over the detention program in the future, but there's no set timeline to do so. 

The BIA has contracts to support 20 other services to the Fort Belknap community, including facilities management, agriculture, forestry, irrigation and real estate services. 

The change-up at the detention facility does not affect law enforcement in whole, Azure said, only the detention facility.