Children and Incarceration in Montana: A Complete Guide

Montana is the fourth-largest state in the country by area. It is roughly the size of Germany, with fewer than 1.1 million people. There are no cities in Montana over 150,000. The distances between communities are real in the way that they are real in Alaska or Wyoming, not the way they are real in New Jersey. A family in Billings with a parent at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge is making a 3-hour drive each way through mountain passes that close in winter. A family in Great Falls with a parent at Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby is making a 2-hour drive north to a small town on the Canadian border.

I went into the federal system, not the Montana DOC. I went in when my kids were 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, and 20. What I know from 66 months is that distance is only one kind of barrier between a parent and a child during a sentence. Montana has that kind of distance in abundance. But the more important barrier is the one that neither the geography nor the correctional system creates: the decision both parents make about how to handle the children during the years of separation.

The out-of-state transfer and what it costs families

As of April 2026, roughly 600 people from Montana's prison system are being held in out-of-state facilities. Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge is undergoing a major expansion, adding approximately 1,000 beds to address overcrowding, but that construction is not yet complete. In the meantime, those 600 people are housed outside Montana, most recently in the process of being moved from Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona to the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi.

This is the same Saguaro facility that appears in Hawaii and Idaho in this series. It is a private CoreCivic prison in the Arizona desert. A family in Missoula or Great Falls or Billings whose parent was at Saguaro was not making a 3-hour drive to Deer Lodge. They were buying a plane ticket to Arizona, or they were not visiting at all.

The transfer to Mississippi does not improve the situation for most Montana families. Tallahatchie County in Mississippi is not reachable from Montana without a flight and a connecting drive. For the approximately 600 people currently held out of state, the situation is the same as it is for Hawaii's families: the phone call and the GettingOut tablet system are the primary form of parent-child contact, because the visit is financially and logistically prohibitive.

When the expansion at Deer Lodge is complete and the out-of-state population returns to Montana, distances will compress to something manageable for most families. Until then, for those 600, the quality of the contact they can make through the tablet and the phone is all there is.

The tablet system and how it works in Montana

Montana DOC facilities provide inmates with GettingOut tablets, operated through ICSolutions. All communication on the tablets is initiated by the inmate. The inmate sends an email invitation to family members, who then create a GettingOut account after receiving the invitation. Families should not create an account and attempt to reach out first; the system requires the inmate to initiate.

Each inmate receives one free 10-minute video block per week. Additional minutes cost $0.25. Tablet access can be turned off at any time and for extended periods without warning for security reasons. The DOC explicitly asks families not to call facilities asking when tablet access will be restored.

This system asks something specific of the incarcerated parent: initiate. Send the invitation. Do not wait for the family to find the account. The child in Billings or Great Falls who is waiting to hear from their parent cannot create a GettingOut account until the invitation arrives. The incarcerated parent who sends that invitation immediately, who sets up the tablet communication system as soon as possible after arrival, is doing the first parenting available from inside a Montana facility.

The 90-day visitation window

Montana's in-person visitation application process requires visitors to create an Okta account, then complete an online Visitation Application. The review process may take up to 90 days. That is three months from application submission to potential approval. During those 90 days, the child who was told visits were possible cannot visit.

For a 9-year-old, 90 days is most of a school term. For a 12-year-old in the hardest stretch of middle school, it is a quarter of the year. The 90-day window is not a punishment; it is a processing reality. But it is a reality that the incarcerated parent needs to set in motion as quickly as possible after arrival.

The GettingOut tablet system and the phone through ICSolutions are what bridge the gap during the visitation processing period. The incarcerated parent who gets the tablet invitation sent, who calls consistently through ICSolutions, who writes letters during the months before visits are approved, is doing the most important parenting available from inside those 90 days.

The decision both parents make in a state this large

My wife never said a word against me to our six children during 66 months. She had every reason. She had six kids in a situation I had created. She chose to let them love me without penalty. What I have with my adult children today is the direct result of that choice.

The parent inside a Montana facility carries the same obligation. The GettingOut message, the weekly video call, the ICSolutions phone call, the letter: all of those are the contact the child gets. Use them to be genuinely present. Ask what happened at school. Remember what the child said last time. Ask about it by name this time. In a state where the distances mean the visit may happen once or twice a year at best, the quality of the remote contact has to do the work that the visit cannot.

The outside parent in Montana carries the same obligation from the other direction. The 90-day wait for visitation approval, the drive to Deer Lodge or Shelby or Billings, the winter road conditions that make those drives dangerous: all of that is real and all of it falls on the outside parent. What the incarcerated parent can do is acknowledge it, specifically and genuinely, on every call.

What the ages mean in Montana

My children were 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, and 20 when I went in.

The 9-year-old in a Montana community, whether in Billings or Missoula or in a smaller town on the Hi-Line, needs the same thing every 9-year-old in this series needs: to hear directly and repeatedly that none of what happened is their fault. Children under 10 build private, silent explanations for a parent's absence. In Montana, where the distances mean the child may go months without seeing the parent, the private explanation has more room to take hold. Say it on every GettingOut message, on every call: this is not your fault. I love you. I am still your parent.

The 11 and 12-year-old in Montana is navigating middle school in a state where communities can be small and isolated and where a parent's incarceration is not invisible. On reservations, where American Indian communities carry a disproportionate share of Montana's incarceration, the situation has a generational dimension that is specific to that cultural context. The incarcerated parent who initiates contact through the tablet, who calls on a consistent schedule, who asks real questions about the child's actual life and remembers the answers, is doing the parenting that geography and incarceration are conspiring to prevent.

The 15-year-old has likely spent time watching the outside parent manage an impossible situation across Montana's distances. By 15 they know what the effort costs. They evaluate whether the incarcerated parent is worth the reciprocal effort of staying in the relationship. Call to listen. Ask more than you tell. The teenager who believes the incarcerated parent is genuinely curious about who they are becoming will answer the GettingOut video call.

The 18 and 20-year-old is an adult deciding what to carry forward. Show up as someone worth the decision.

What the outside parent carries in Montana

The outside parent in Montana is managing children and a household in a state where the incarcerated parent may be in Deer Lodge, in Shelby, or in a facility in Mississippi, depending on the current state of Montana's overcrowding. They are navigating the Okta account creation, the online visitation application, the 90-day wait, and then the drive to whatever facility finally holds their loved one.

What they need from the incarcerated parent is acknowledgment. One GettingOut message or one call where the person inside names specifically what they see the outside parent carrying and says thank you, in direct and genuine terms, is worth more than any instruction delivered from inside a Montana facility. My wife carried six children through 66 months. She deserved to hear that I saw it and was grateful. I said so as often as the access allowed.

For the outside parent: the children of incarcerated parents in Montana are watching both adults. The child who grows up knowing both parents chose to protect them from the worst of this situation is the child with the best chance of coming through it intact. My wife made that choice every day. What I have now is what it made possible.

How communication works in Montana

GettingOut tablets are provided to inmates at DOC-run facilities. All contact is initiated by the inmate, who sends an email invitation to family members. Once received, family creates a GettingOut account at gettingout.com. One free 10-minute video block is available weekly; additional minutes cost $0.25. Tablet access may be suspended without warning.

Phone calls go through ICSolutions. FCC rate caps effective April 6, 2026, limit calls to $0.11 per minute at prisons and large jails plus a facility fee.

For in-person visitation: create an Okta account, then complete the online Visitation Application at cor.mt.gov. The review process may take up to 90 days. Minor children must be listed on the same form as their legal guardian. Criminal background checks are conducted on all applicants. Visit scheduling at Montana State Prison is through the ICSolutions website; visits are accepted on a first-come first-served basis. To schedule, call (406) 415-6313 with two weeks' notice.

Money: use inmatetrust.com to deposit electronically, or send a U.S. Postal Service money order or cashier's check. For out-of-state prisoners at Tallahatchie County in Mississippi, contact that facility directly for communication and visitation procedures.

Montana DOC: 5 South Last Chance Gulch, Helena, MT 59620. Phone: (406) 444-3930. Website: cor.mt.gov.

Key facility contacts: Montana State Prison, Deer Lodge: 400 Conley Lake Road, Deer Lodge MT 59722; (406) 415-6126. Montana Women's Prison, Billings: 701 South 27th Street, Billings MT 59101; (406) 247-5100.

Federal inmates in Montana fall under BOP jurisdiction. BOP communication uses TRULINCS for email via CORRLINKS and TRUFONE for phone. FCC rate caps apply; First Step Act programming offers 300 free minutes per month.

Where this leaves you

Montana is enormous and its prison system is overcrowded, with hundreds of its people held in other states. The expansion at Deer Lodge will eventually bring most of those people back. When it does, Montana families will still face mountain passes and 3-hour drives and 90-day visitation waits. The geography does not change.

What the incarcerated parent can do is initiate. Send the GettingOut invitation the first day the tablet is available. Call as often as the ICSolutions system allows. Apply for visitation immediately, so the 90-day clock starts running as soon as possible. Write letters to the specific child about their specific life during the months before the visit is approved.

The outside parent who navigates the Okta account and the application and the wait and the drive is doing something extraordinary. Name it. Thank them for it. The children in Montana who come through a parent's incarceration with both parents choosing to protect them are the children who come through intact. Those choices are available from anywhere in this system, in Deer Lodge or in Shelby or in Mississippi. Make them.