MISSOULA, MT – On Monday October 5th the crew of the Motorhome Diaries rolled into Hardin, Montana. We wanted to learn more about the controversial prison that was built there especially since there have been conflicting reports. We fortuitously entered city hall to discover that a board meeting for the commissioners of the Two Rivers Authority – Hardin’s industrial development arm – was about to take place with an update on the agenda regarding the detention center.

The “Authority” is a private / public partnership. The public (taxpayers) portion comes from the fact that the bond to fund the prison and other projects is backed by the local governments ability to take as much money as they’d like thanks to its power to tax. It’s clear these commissioners placed themselves and local taxpayers in a tough situation – bad decision after bad decision by Hardin city politicians has made this into a national news story. Some facts:

In 2004-05, a Texas development consortium convinced the Two Rivers Authority to float bonds to build the Two Rivers Regional Correctional Facility, a $27 million jail for 464 inmates mostly dormitory housing located on a 40-acre field. The facility was ready to open in July 2007. On May 1, 2008 the Authority bonds defaulted. When the Guantanamo Bay prison is closed down The Hardin City Council and the Two Rivers Authority proposed that some of the detainees there be transferred to their empty prison. As of today no prisoners have ever been housed there.

Most recently the Two Rivers Authority was near a contract with the private American Police Force (APF) to allow APF to assume control of the prison (acquire inmates and operate the facility). The company is headed by a wannabe bond villain, “Captain” Michael Hilton, who has a criminal record of his own. As is shown on the video, we spoke to Becky Shay who recently left her job as a reporter for the Billings Gazette to deal with the media on behalf APF.

The bottom line is that the government of Hardin, Montana made some serious errors when it gambled the money of it’s taxpayers on the construction of a prison. They wanted to cash in on the lucrative business of sheltering prisoners (the bulk of whom are warehoused behind bars for actions that many consider “victimless”). When the State of Montana refused to move prisoners to this never-used prison the town desperately sought to capitalize on the impending closing of Guantanamo Bay and later the offer by APF. Neither scheme looks like it will work out and the taxpayers still have an empty prison. At least they have room for the politicians who steal money from the remaining taxpayers in Hardin, Montana.