Audra Holcomb of Great Falls has been 1,800 miles away from her incarcerated son, Erin, for more than a year. In early 2025, he was transferred from a private prison in Montana to Tutwiler, Mississippi. Her son preferred the more comfortable cells in Shelby, Montana, Audra told Montana Free Press. Audra said she preferred when he was there, too.  “I was able to hug my son,” Holcomb said. “And we were able to visit for a couple hours and at least remain physically in contact. I could see that he was okay and vice versa.” It took Audra an hour to travel to Shelby to see him from her home in Great Falls. She said the trips cost “maybe $5 in gas.” She estimated a trip to see her son in Mississippi would cost her $3,500. She hasn’t seen him since the Montana Department of Corrections relocated him last year. But the two keep in contact. Erin, who was sentenced to 60 years in prison for deliberate homicide in 2021, calls his parents twice a day. “We’re his lifeline. We’re the people that keep him sane,” Holcomb said. Soon, 600 of Montana’s roughly 2,900 incarcerated men will be serving time in Tutwiler. That’s about 1 in 5. The number of out-of-state inmates won’t change, but instead of incarcerating 360 prisoners in Arizona and 240 in Mississippi, Montana will incarcerate its entire out-of-state population in Mississippi. Families told MTFP that the transfer process has been shrouded in uncertainty and that the added distance makes visitation even more expensive. The Montana Department of Corrections told MTFP in March that it is in the process of ending its contract with a private prison in Eloy, Arizona, and will instead increase the number of prisoners it holds in Mississippi. Carolynn Stocker, the Department of Corrections spokesperson, said the state is “leveraging its out-of-state contracts by concentrating Montana inmates in one location.”  In Mississippi, the cost per inmate will be about $85 per day. In Arizona, the rate would have increased to $94. That means relocating 360 prisoners from Arizona to Mississippi will save the state about $1.2 million a year.  Montana first sent inmates out of state in 2023, days after signing a contract with the Tennessee-based prison company CoreCivic to relocate prisoners to Arizona. When overcrowding persisted in Deer Lodge, Montana signed another contract with CoreCivic, directing prisoners to the company’s facility in Tutwiler.  The Department of Corrections regularly transfers small groups of prisoners to manage the inmate population. As part of this larger move, the department isn’t directly transferring prisoners from Arizona to Mississippi. Some people might be relocated multiple times before reaching their final destination, so it’s unclear which individuals will end up in which state. This past weekend, about 300 prisoners were in Tutwiler, and roughly 100 remained in Elroy. The transfer of additional inmates from both Montana and Arizona to Mississippi, then, is ongoing.  That creates uncertainty for people like Tommy Sanson II, who the department recently moved to the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge after almost three years in Arizona. His wife, LaDonna Sanson, who lives in Roundup, said she hasn’t received any guarantees he’ll stay in Montana, though she hopes to visit in May.  She visited him twice in Arizona. The second time, she brought their 7-month-old son. They haven’t seen each other in person since last year.  The Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, a private prison operated by the company CoreCivic, runs alongside U.S. Route 49 in Tutwiler, Mississippi. Credit: Christopher Cartwright / MTFP If the state moves her husband to Mississippi, Sanson said she doesn’t think she’ll be able to afford to visit. She worries about that impact on their son. “He’ll be scared of his dad,” Sanson said. The Montana Legislature in 2025 debated the issue of separating families by placing state inmates in out-of-state prisons. Lawmakers passed a bill requiring the Department of Corrections to “consider” prisoners’ in-state family in the decision to relocate them outside Montana, but they rejected Senate Bill 425, which would have outright prevented a prisoner with a child under age 13 from being sent out of state.  But the state remains tight-lipped about why or when prisoners are moved. Stocker said the department moves people based on population and inmate needs. The department cited security concerns as justification for not sharing details about when inmates are moved, and it did not issue a press release announcing the decision to move inmates out of Arizona. News about the relocation came as a shock to KC Betchie, of Helena, who was planning a trip to Arizona in May to see her incarcerated brother, Trevor. She said her family canceled the visit over uncertainty about where he would be incarcerated. He is currently in Tutwiler, according to the department database.  “It’s been over a year since I laid eyes on my brother,” Betchie said.  Traci Hedrick, a resident of Washington state, was planning a trip to visit her incarcerated son, Steven Hedrick, in Arizona. Her son was recently moved to Tutwiler.  “All of us, his whole family, we’ve been saving and planning to go towards the end of summer. But now, no. I can’t afford Mississippi. There’s no way,” Hedrick said. Hedrick also said she had concerns about the quality of care her son will receive at the out-of-state facility and whether being so far from his attorneys in Montana will affect his appeal.  During the 2025 legislative session, Democrats pushed for an amendment to House Bill 2, the state’s primary budget bill, that would have revoked funding for the out-of-state beds for inmates. “One of my fears is when we ship people out of this state, we risk them losing the protections that our Montana Constitution grants them,” Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, said during a debate about the amendment. The amendment failed after Republicans argued there was no in-state alternative to out-of-state incarceration.  “We didn’t send folks to Arizona and Mississippi because we decided to help fatten the bottom line of a private correctional company. We sent the folks out of state because the correctional system in this state is stuffed to the gills,” Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda, said during the debate. “One of my fears is when we ship people out of this state, we risk them losing the protections that our Montana Constitution grants them.”Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula Fitzpatrick carried legislation in recent sessions to expand the state’s correctional capacity, though it will be years before the new space is ready. Construction on new low-security housing units at Montana State Prison, funded by $156 million allocated by the 2023 Legislature, began about a year ago. And in 2025, a bill allocating funds for long-term infrastructure projects included $186 million for new prison units and updated facilities at the state prison in Deer Lodge. The department plans to construct additional cells by January 2029. Stocker told MTFP that the state hopes the new units will mean no more prisoners being sent out of state. Until the state has the capacity to house its inmates, the families of incarcerated Montanans face tough choices.  Kenda Kitchen of Washington, a longtime friend of Montana inmate Nate Plemmons, said she’s not planning to go to Mississippi if they move him. “It’s too expensive. I mean, how’s anyone supposed to visit their friends or relatives when they’re that far away?” Kitchen said.  “We didn’t send folks to Arizona and Mississippi because we decided to help fatten the bottom line of a private correctional company. We sent the folks out of state because the correctional system in this state is stuffed to the gills.” — Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda Some people, like Jordan Hill, have moved to be closer to their loved ones. She and her daughter moved from Washington to Montana in 2024 to be closer to Hill’s incarcerated husband, Jeramey Hill. But their proximity to Jeramey was short-lived. “About three or four months later, they ended up moving him to Arizona,” Hill said.  She visited him twice. Her two trips in early 2025 to see her husband, one with her daughter, cost a total of $3,500. The department recently moved him from Arizona to Montana, but it’s not clear where he’ll ultimately be incarcerated.  Hill said she hopes to visit her husband soon. She said staying in touch has been challenging and expensive, but even if he transferred to Mississippi, she plans to stay in contact.  “It’s necessary for me,” Hill said. “It’s necessary for my daughter.” The post As Montana moves inmates to a prison in Mississippi, families worry about losing contact  appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less