DEER LODGE — For the past few days the Montana National Guard has been using a truck to pump water into the Montana State Prison’s main water tank after they discovered a rupture causing havoc at the prison.
“We certainly recognize the heightened kind of tension that this scenario could create, so many of our security professionals are out talking to the units to make sure they understand, you know, we’re doing everything we can to resolve this issue as fast as possible,” Montana Department of Corrections Deputy Director Eric Strauss said.
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The issue started Friday morning when the prison lost pressure to its main water supply disrupting many services.
“Everything you could imagine, you know, for food service, for sanitation, showering, flushing of toilets, all that stuff,” Strauss said.
By the third day, crews were still trying to find the location of the break along the prison buried waterline. The National Guard has been hauling in water to up the prison’s 300,000-gallon water tank to keep the system pressurized until the break can be located and repaired.
Coincidentally, the Guard just returned from this type of training in California.
“The cool thing is we’re now supporting our community instead of necessarily, that was just an exercise, now, this is real, we’re supporting the department of corrections,” National Guard Maj. Eric Nelson said.
The prison has been providing approximately 1,600 inmates with seven bottles of drinking water each per day. The inmates use portable toilets, which staff must escort them to and from.
“It’s obviously not ideal, but it’s kind of the interim solution we have until we fix the problem,” Strauss said.
About a dozen volunteers from Probation & Parole have been helping the prison staff during the water crisis.
MTN News has received many messages from relatives of inmates claiming the inmates are suffering. The Biggest complaints are lack of sanitary conditions, some inmates using bags for toilets and not beingable to shower for days.
The DOC claims inmates are adapting.
“The tenor of the inmates was good, I mean they were expressing concerns about like when are we going to be able to shower and we’re recognizing that’s a primary need for people, so we’re doing everything we can to make sure we can get them a sure as soon as possible,” Strauss said.
The DOC is confident they will locate the waterline break soon.
