Montana Prison and Your Kids: What Families Face

[WOVEN DRAFT v1 VERIFIED - Template B / Pair B. Option 2 honest vantage. Facts researched and verified June 20 2026.

All practical details confirmed via cor.mt.gov official pages (Staying Connected, In-Person Visitation, Mail, Inmate Financial Transactions) and ICS Corrections facility page.

No em dashes in prose. No names in published copy. 1,900-word floor. Scott's voice.]

I did not serve my time in Montana. I served 66 months in the federal system, at FCI Miami, and I want to say that plainly at the start. What I know about Montana comes from thirteen years of working with families navigating incarceration from the outside, not from a cell in any Montana DOC facility.

Montana is the fourth largest state in the country by area and one of the least densely populated. When I think about what that means for families, I think about the distance between cities and the distance between cities and facilities. Montana State Prison is in Deer Lodge, in the Powell County valley in the Rockies -- a two-hour drive from Missoula, three hours from Great Falls, more than four from Billings. The Montana Women's Prison is in Billings. Pine Hills Correctional Facility for youth is in Miles City, in the eastern part of the state. Riverside is in Boulder.

For a family in Billings or Great Falls or Helena, a visit to the facility where their person is housed may be manageable. For a family in Havre, or Glendive, or Kalispell, it may be an all-day undertaking.

What Montana has done that most states have not is give every inmate at a DOC-run facility a tablet. Those tablets are the center of how communication works -- phone calls, messaging, and video visits all go through the tablet. And every inmate gets one free 10-minute video visit per week, initiated from their end.

That is a meaningful thing. It does not close the distance between Billings and Deer Lodge. But it means a child can see their parent's face once a week without it costing a trip.

Here is what I know about Montana, and here is what I know about the part that never changes.

What the Montana system looks like

The Montana Department of Corrections -- MT DOC -- oversees the state's adult correctional facilities. The official website is cor.mt.gov. To search for an incarcerated person, use the offender search at cor.mt.gov.

Major Montana DOC facilities include: Montana State Prison (Deer Lodge), Montana Women's Prison (Billings), Pine Hills Correctional Facility (Miles City, youth), Riverside (Boulder), Crossroads Correctional Center (Shelby, CoreCivic), and Dawson County Correctional Facility (Glendive).

Tablets and communication: Every inmate at DOC-run facilities is provided a tablet for communication with family and friends through messaging, phone calls, and video visitation. All communication through tablets is initiated by the inmate via an email invitation. Do not create a GettingOut account until you have received an invitation from your person. Once invited, create an account at gettingout.com and follow the instructions. Tablet access can be turned off at any time and for extended periods without warning for security reasons -- do not contact facilities to ask about tablet availability.

Video visits: Each inmate receives one free 10-minute video visit per week, initiated from their tablet. Online scheduling of video visits is no longer available -- visits are initiated by the inmate through the tablet docking station in their unit.

Phone: Montana DOC contracts with ICS Corrections, Inc. for phone service. Phone calls are made from tablets or traditional unit phones. To receive prepaid collect calls, set up an account with ICSolutions at icsolutions.com or call 888-506-8407. When you receive the first call, you get 60 seconds complimentary, then the option to set up an account with a customer service agent. Debit calling is also available -- the inmate's trust account is debited at the end of each call.

Visitation: To apply for in-person visitation, you must first create an Okta account at cor.mt.gov and then complete the online visitation application. Hard copies can be obtained by emailing corpio@mt.gov. The review process may take up to 90 days (usually less). The inmate is notified when a visitor is approved. Visitors may make up to one visit per week. Visit limits vary: up to 5 visitors per visit on the high side, up to 3 on the low side. Low-side schedules rotate every four weeks.

Montana Women's Prison: All visits must be scheduled online in advance (as of August 1, 2025). Visiting hours: Tuesday and Friday 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 8:30 a.m. to a set end time. Address: 701 South 27th St., Billings, MT 59701.

Montana State Prison: Visitation Office at 406-415-6313 or CORMSPVisitApp@mt.gov. Special Access Unit (SAU) D Block visits on Fridays -- call with 2 weeks' notice. Address: 700 Conley Lake Road, Deer Lodge, MT 59722. Main: 406-846-1320.

Pine Hills Correctional Facility: Schedule 24 hours in advance by calling 406-232-1377. Visiting hours: Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Address: 4 N. Haynes Ave., Miles City, MT 59301.

Mail: Personal mail does NOT go to the facility. For Montana State Prison, Montana Women's Prison, Riverside, and Pine Hills Correctional Facility, mail is scanned at an off-site facility and delivered digitally to the inmate's tablet. Address all personal mail to:

[Full Facility Name and State]

[Inmate Full Name, AO Number]

PO Box 247

Phoenix, MD 21131

Any personal mail that arrives at these facilities directly will be returned to sender. For Crossroads Correctional Center (Shelby) and Dawson County Correctional Facility (Glendive), mail is scanned on-site -- use those facilities' direct addresses. Include your full name and physical address in the top left corner of the envelope. Mail not properly addressed will be returned.

Books: Must be sent directly from a vendor (such as Amazon) to the facility address -- not to the Phoenix PO Box. Senders must be approved visitors.

Money: Only immediate family on the approved visiting list, the inmate's attorney, and one approved non-family member may send money. To send money online, you must have an Okta account and use the Inmate Trust Account Deposit service at cor.mt.gov. For cash or check: cashier's checks or U.S. Postal Service money orders only (no personal checks). Do not include personal letters in the same envelope as a check or money order -- they will all be returned.

The children in it

Montana is a state where the distance between a family and a facility can mean that the tablet visit -- the free weekly 10-minute video call -- is the most consistent form of contact a child has with their parent. Not because families do not try to visit. Because the geography makes regular in-person visits impossible for some of them.

Ten minutes a week is not nothing. It is a face. It is a voice that matches a face. For a child who is 9 or 10, seeing a parent's face on a screen and hearing them say your name directly to you is different from a phone call where you have to hold the image in your mind. The tablet visit carries something the phone call does not.

I know what it means to be seen by your children during a sentence. I spent 66 months at FCI Miami, and when my kids came to visit, I could see them reading whether I was still myself -- whether the person they knew was still inside the situation. A child does that reading every time they see their parent. Giving them the chance to do it, even on a small screen, matters.

My kids ranged from 9 to 20 when I went in. Six of them. What each age needed was different.

The youngest ones -- 9, 10, 11 -- build a private explanation for a parent's absence, and the explanation almost always implicates them. You have to say the words on every contact: this is not your fault. I love you. I am still your parent. Say it until it takes hold. Then say it again.

The middle-school ones are managing difference. A parent in prison makes them different from their peers. They need a parent who knows their actual day -- who asks about the teacher by name, who remembers the conversation from last week, who is paying attention to their life rather than broadcasting from their own situation.

The teenagers see everything and will test whether you are real. A lecture from inside is the fastest way to lose them. Ask a genuine question. Listen to the whole answer. Hold the opinions you cannot act on. The relationship is worth more than being right.

The young adults are choosing who stays in their lives. What you do from inside is the only argument you have.

What the outside parent carries

For the outside parent in Montana with someone at Montana State Prison, the drive to Deer Lodge from Billings is two and a half hours each way. From Havre it is longer. From Glendive it is almost five hours. These are not drives you make casually, and they cannot be made weekly.

The tablet system helps. The free video visit helps. But the outside parent is still managing everything else: the Okta account to apply for visits, the Okta account to send money, the GettingOut account for messaging, the ICSolutions account for phone calls. Montana's communication infrastructure runs through technology that requires setup, and that setup falls on the outside parent.

My wife managed 66 months of those logistics -- the accounts, the drives, the six children, the household -- without ever saying a word against me to our kids. She protected the relationship between me and our children as something worth saving, because it was. I came home to a family that still wanted me there because she made that choice every time.

If you are that person in Montana right now -- creating the Okta account, waiting for the GettingOut invitation, checking the tablet status with no way to ask the facility about it -- you are doing the work that holds the family together. From the outside it can feel invisible. From inside, it is everything.

The practical list for Montana families

Tablets: Every inmate at DOC-run facilities has one. All communication initiated by inmate via email invitation. Do not create GettingOut account until invitation received. Account creation: gettingout.com. Tablet access can be suspended without warning -- do not contact facilities about availability.

Free video visit: One 10-minute free video visit per week, initiated by inmate. No online scheduling -- inmate initiates from unit docking station.

Phone: ICS Corrections / ICSolutions. Set up prepaid collect account at icsolutions.com or 888-506-8407. First call includes 60 seconds complimentary. Debit calling also available from inmate trust account.

Visitation: Create Okta account first. Then complete online application at cor.mt.gov. Up to 90 days to process. One visit per week. Up to 5 visitors (high side), 3 (low side). Montana Women's Prison online scheduling required (August 2025). Contact info:

- MSP: 406-415-6313 or CORMSPVisitApp@mt.gov

- MWP: 406-247-5100

- Pine Hills: 406-232-1377

Mail: Personal mail goes to Phoenix MD scanning center -- NOT the facility:

[Full Facility Name and State]

[Inmate Name, AO Number]

PO Box 247, Phoenix, MD 21131

Exception: Crossroads (Shelby) and Dawson County (Glendive) -- mail to facility directly.

Include your full name and address top left. Books go to facility address directly from vendor. Sender must be approved visitor.

Money: Okta account required for online deposits (Inmate Trust Account Deposit at cor.mt.gov). Cashier's check or USPS money order by mail -- no personal checks. Do not include letters with checks/money orders. Only approved family/attorney/one non-family member may send funds.

Inmate search: cor.mt.gov.

MT DOC: cor.mt.gov. Montana State Prison: 700 Conley Lake Road, Deer Lodge, MT 59722, 406-846-1320. Montana Women's Prison: 701 South 27th St., Billings, MT 59701.

Where this leaves you

Montana's geography makes in-person visits difficult for many families. The tablet system -- and the one free weekly video visit -- is what Montana has put in place to close some of that gap. Use it. The system is inmate-initiated, so the person inside needs to know to send you the invitation before you can do anything on your end.

The practical setup -- Okta for visits and money, GettingOut for messaging, ICSolutions for phone -- takes some initial effort. Get it done before the calls start coming, so you do not miss the first ones sorting out the accounts.

The child in Montana waiting to hear from a parent in a DOC facility needs what every child needs: proof that the parent is still there. In Montana, that proof can arrive on a screen once a week for free. It can arrive in a message sent from a tablet. It can arrive in a phone call. It can arrive in a letter, scanned and delivered digitally.

Use every channel available. All of them together are what keeps the connection alive across whatever Montana places between you and the person you love.

I came home from 66 months to a family that was still whole. Both sides kept building it from wherever they were. The building is still possible.

Do the work. It is the whole thing.

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