Inmates with intermittent hot water at State Prison

Two boilers at the end of their lifespan failed in the Montana State Prison at the end of March, affecting 170 inmates in a low-security unit at the Deer Lodge facility.

Since the failure, it’s taken weeks for the 30-years-old boilers to be replaced.  New boilers are expected to arrive this week for installation, Montana Department of Corrections Communications Officer Carolynn Stocker said in an email to the Daily Montanan.

In the meantime, Montana State Prison maintenance staff installed electric, residential-size water heaters a day after. The heaters allow inmates to take showers on a staggered basis. Previously, inmates could shower at any time. Scheduling was implemented to deal with the reduced capacity of the water heaters.

The boilers’ failure is the latest instance of struggling infrastructure at the Montana State Prison. Last October, 51 inmates were left without heat for five days following a system failure. And in January, 180 inmates were affected by a boiler failure at the Work Reentry Center following a cold snap.

The boilers most recent failure happened in a unit that is currently scheduled for reconstruction and renovation several years away –in 2027. The renovation is made possible by HB 817 which allocated $211 million to the Montana State Prison for improvements to infrastructure and technology. It’s the largest allocation ever made to the Montana State Prison.

“Some of the buildings in the low-security complex were built about 50 years ago,” Stocker stated. “When the department gets these renovations and reconstruction finished, it will be operating with new, energy-efficient buildings rather than trying to piece together equipment that was outdated 25 years ago and never funded for replacement.”