Sheriff limits jail population due to staffing shortage
Facing a critical staffing shortage, the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office is reducing the number of people housed in the Adult Detention Center.
Sheriff Jesse Slaughter said that as of Sept. 17, the jail has 51 personnel, which is below the manning level required for normal jail operations.
Full staffing is 90, he said.
The jail hasn’t been fully staffed for years, but Slaughter said it’s reached critical levels over the last few years.
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To lower the jail population until staffing levels improve, Slaughter has implemented an emergency operations plan and ordered:
- all U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection detainees, and those awaiting transfer to the Montana State Prison, must be coordinated for pickup and removal by Sept. 21
- the Great Falls Municipal Court inmate population is limited to a maximum of 15 people and once that limit is reached, an existing inmate needs to be released or transferred before another can be admitted
- agencies need to determine which individuals must remain in custody and arrange transfers or other housing for those who can be moved
Slaughter said the staffing level became more critical following four recent resignations.
He said the jail needs 65-70 personnel for normal operations.
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Undersheriff Scott Van Dyken told The Electric that the 51 jail personnel include a captain, who is the jail warden, two lieutenants, and 48 detention officers. Of those 48, he said four are on light duty, one is on military leave, three are brand new and still in training, two are transport coordinators, leaving 38 people guarding the Sept. 17 population of 420 inmates.
“It’s impossible,” he said.
Night shift requires 14 people and daytime operations require more, Van Dyken said, for coordinating medical and court appointment transports.
The Sept. 17 population of 420 includes 43 CBP and 16 ICE holds, 38 state men’s prison and 10 state women’s prison holds, Slaughter told The Electric.
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He said that CBP had already moved out five detainees and the state had moved six inmates.
On Sept. 21, the deadline Slaughter set for federal and state inmates to be removed, he said they’d reassess the situation.
“This is not a decision I make lightly, but we have reached a point where our staffing shortage requires immediate action,” Slaughter said in a release. “I recognize the importance of our federal, state and local partnerships, but my first responsibility is ensuring the Cascade County Detention Center can operate safely. We simply do not have enough personnel right now to safely maintain the population we have been housing.”
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Slaugher said that CCSO is continuing to work with federal, state and local agencies to coordinate transfers and minimize disruptions while maintaining safety and security at the jail.
He told The Electric that the changes don’t affect federal holds under the U.S. Marshals Service contract, which he is currently renegotiating for a higher daily rate.
Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki filed motions in about 30 cases to have the defendant released on their own recognizance or transferred into the pre-trial program. In five cases, he’s requesting to have the defendant placed on GPS monitoring, at the county’s expense, before release.
Racki said none of those cases involved violent or sex offenses and the majority had bonds of $5,000 or less.
He said the county also opened up its pre-trial program a bit temporarily, making those already on supervision eligible for the program. There may be additional cost to the county for the additional GPS monitoring, but at this point, Racki said that can be absorbed in his budget.
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In his motions requesting release in those 30 cases and pre-trial monitoring, he told the court that if the program goes over budget, they’ll have to pull back.
Lowering the jail population, Slaughter said, will hopefully allow the jail to temporarily close a station and just use two, which oversee four pods each.
Slaughter said CCSO detention officer pay remains lower than other big counties in the state.
According to the current collective bargaining agreement with detention officers, the pay scale effective July 2, 2024 was:
- recruit: $23.54
- years 1-2: $24.08
- two+ years: $25
- corporal: $26
- sergeant: $27
Those rates increased by the Montana Association of Counties consumer price index on July 1 of 2025, 2026 and 2027 at a minimum of 1 percent and a maximum of 3.5 percent.
The agreement also includes wage increases for longevity in their second year of employment, adjusted annually.
The current labor agreement, which includes pay rates and other employment details, was approved in July 2024 and runs through June 30, 2028.
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The union sent notice to the county this week seeking to reopen the contract and county officials were working to determine what specific items they wanted to address, Racki told The Electric.
During a CCSO budget discussion with county commissioners earlier this year, Van Dyken said that for several months, CCSO has been offering overtime incentives to detention officers since they were quitting in high numbers.
They’re paid an additional $15 per hour on an overtime shift, and if they volunteer for overtime, they’re paid another $15 per hour on top of that.
He told The Electric this week that some detention officers are working nine to 12 consecutive days, but doing so voluntarily in many cases.
The overtime incentive was factored into the CCSO budget, he said, and it shuts off if staffing reaches 80 jail personnel.
He said CCSO shifted wages and benefits for 20 detention officer positions, which have gone unfilled for some time, into the overtime budget.
Some detention officer candidates are currently moving through the hiring and background check process, but they must complete training before they can be placed in the staffing rotation, according to CCSO.
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Slaughter said he’d likely host another hiring blitz soon.
Slaughter said the limitation on jail admissions will impact the budget since the county jail operates on a revenue model, meaning the county is paid by federal and state agencies per inmate per day.
“It’s gonna hurt” revenue, Slaughter said, against unchanged expenses.
County officials have been discussing for several years the need to review the jail funding model as expenses outpace revenues.
The revenue model puts less financial burden on the local taxpayer ordinarily but it makes decisions about limiting jail admissions “really hard.”
He said that as staffing improves, the jail can increase admissions accordingly.
