Tribal Police Chief Moses Dione said the tribe can no longer afford to pay for staffing and other facility expenses.
“Pretty much all the needs for the jail can’t be met,” he said. “We will have no choice but to shut it down.”
Six or seven Fort Belknap jail employees will lose their jobs because of the closure.
“The downside for our department is we’re losing good detention staff,” Dione said.
The BIA allocated $74,000 this year to pay for housing inmates on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. Tribal officials estimate the actual cost to be about $400,000.
The total amount of money the reservation receives from the BIA for law enforcement has been cut by $50,000 to $120,000 each year since 2003, Dione said. The tribal government received $990,000 this year.
A larger, more modern jail is being built on the reservation. The $1.7 million detention center should be finished in October.
Loren “Bum” Stiffarm, Fort Belknap tribal chief administrative officer, estimated in January that it would cost $726,000 annually to staff the larger facility.
“If the Bureau of Indian Affairs doesn’t provide the funding, I don’t see it opening,” Dione said.
A BIA official did not immediately return a phone call seeking to confirm the funding numbers.
Earlier this year, tribal leaders met with a representatives from U.S. Sen. Max Baucus’ office and traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for more money. Baucus’ spokeswoman, Sara Kuban, said the senator is working to find a solution.
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