State of Montana Newsroom
Governor Gianforte Tours Flathead Valley Reentry Center
EVERGREEN, Mont. – Governor Greg Gianforte this week toured the Flathead Valley Reentry Center (FVRC), the first reentry center in northwest Montana to assist offenders with their transition from a secure facility back into the community.
“By helping offenders find employment, access resources, and reconnect with their families, this center is giving Montanans a better opportunity to successfully rebuild their lives and contribute to their communities,” Gov. Gianforte said. “Together, we’re promoting a safer community by providing our returning citizens with the support they need.
Gov. Gianforte talking with a resident of the Flathead Valley Reentry Center
Across Montana, the Montana Department of Corrections (DOC) contracts with five nonprofit organizations to provide four prerelease centers that serve female offenders and seven prerelease centers that serve male offenders. The Flathead Valley Reentry Center is the first to be owned and operated by the DOC.
Through $7 million investment passed by the legislature and signed into law by the governor through House Bill 5 in 2023, the facility opened in October 2025 and currently serves 38 adult males with the capacity for 90 residents.
According to DOC, approximately 88 percent of the residents at the new facility were sentenced from Flathead, Lake, and Lincoln counties. Before the FVRC opened, these individuals would have been distributed among prerelease facilities in other areas of the state.
“The new Flathead Valley Reentry Center promotes safer communities by providing the means for offenders to reestablish themselves in their community after incarceration with the structure and guidance to do so successfully,” said DOC Director Eric Strauss. “They can reconnect with their families, get settled in their careers, and develop the support systems they will need moving forward – all in the community they call home.”
Touring the center, the governor and director met with FVRC Director Jim Sanderson to hear about the impact of having the center located in the Flathead.
“Once their programming at those facilities was completed, they would need to uproot themselves, move home, and start over. Others would simply return to the community without the critical transition assistance reentry programs provide,” Sanderson said. “Today, these folks can leave prison, go to the prerelease center here in Evergreen, find work, access resources, and connect with their families, setting them on the right path for success in their own community.”
Prerelease programs are generally six-month programs. Offenders live at the prerelease center, but work in the community, leaving and returning to the center according to a pre-approved schedule. A wide range of treatment and programming, aimed at addressing court-ordered requirements and identified risks and needs, is offered in the center, as well as in the community.
Talking with one offender who recently completed a six-month program at the FVRC, the governor heard from him about the impact of the resources and programs offered through the center that connected him with a job in the community which is helping him work towards his goal of building a home for his family, including his wife and two children.
At the center, Department of Labor and Industry Job Service resources are provided to offenders to connect them with jobs and careers in the valley. A key component of the governor’s 406 JOBS initiative is focused on utilizing the Office of Reentry to support employers in hiring former offenders and improving targeted career programs to reduce recidivism, as part of the Zero Barriers to Work plan. View more on the 406 JOBS initiative here.
Joining the Gov. Gianforte for the visit was Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell.
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