Lawmakers told crimes-against-children bill could raise prison costs as it closes prosecution gaps

Representative Cathy Love, sponsor of House Bill 82, told the House Appropriations Committee the bill would revise laws related to crimes against children and that ‘‘the more bad guys we catch the more we're going to have to incarcerate.’’ Love outlined the fiscal consequences she expects if the bill increases felony convictions.

Testimony in support came from law-enforcement and prosecutor organizations and from the Department of Justice. Alex Sturhan, director of external affairs for the Montana Department of Justice, said the department sees the bill as clarifying and modernizing statute to address evolving criminal behavior and that it could be preventative. “Once we get those things, it may have an impact on us, but it's a little bit hard to quantify that right now,” Sturhan said.

Nanette Gilbertson, representing the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and the Montana County Attorneys Association, said county attorneys and sheriffs support the bill and accept that there will be public-safety and incarceration costs associated with holding offenders accountable.

The Department of Corrections (DOC) provided the fiscal assumptions that form the fiscal note. Natalie Smitham, DOC chief financial officer, said the department identified about 30 annual convictions under existing statutes that the bill would expand and that the fiscal note assumes a 10% increase in incarcerations related to those statutes following enactment. DOC used a per-diem contract cost of $92 per day (the current rate the department pays to a contracted facility mentioned in testimony) to estimate an annual cost of roughly $33,580 per inmate, and projected a modest inflation factor for later years. Smitham cautioned that data on prosecutions that failed because of statutory gaps are incomplete, and DOC’s calculation is an estimate.

Committee members pressed witnesses for empirical evidence that prosecutions were previously blocked by statutory language. Representative Mercer asked whether counties had cases that could not be prosecuted under existing law. Nanette Gilbertson said county attorneys had identified instances where clarified language would make prosecution “cleaner” but could not definitively say prosecutions previously failed outright in every instance. The Department of Justice said it was gathering records requested by the committee.

Lawmakers also discussed the accommodation and capacity implications. DOC witnesses said Montana currently houses several hundred inmates out of state under contract and also houses many inmates in county jails; the department is pursuing in-state capacity projects (a project to add 117 beds at Montana State Prison was discussed) but those beds may not come online immediately. Committee members asked about the per-diem assumptions and whether contract rates could rise faster than the 1.5% inflation factor used in the fiscal note.

Representative Love closed by arguing the state would likely incur these costs eventually and that the bill might prevent further crimes by enabling earlier prosecution. “This is money well spent in this case even though I don't like spending money,” she said.

Ending: The hearing on HB 82 closed without a committee vote. The committee received the DOC fiscal estimate and requested any additional records lawmakers asked for from DOJ and county attorneys to better quantify the fiscal impact.