The Department of Corrections also set out in search of a new partner to purchase the milk.

“Unfortunately, that was not adequate.”īutler said state officials, too, contacted Costco in hopes they could sway the company, but the effort failed. “All came to $22.16 per hour given all these factors,” Butler said. In a letter to the company the department tallied up the inmates’ wages, cost of room and board and health coverage, which included dental and vision, mental health services and savings for the inmates’ re-entry after their sentence. The Department of Corrections tried to appeal to Costco. “We could operate our dairy with only staff but that does not provide the training and work programs needed for our offenders.” “There was no way DOC could accomplish this and remain economically viable as we are a training program,” Butler told the committee. The next year, Darigold notified the prison it would not be able to meet the policy. In 2018, Costco enacted a global policy on prison labor that allowed prison-made products so long as the inmates were paid a prevailing wage, with its first report in 2019. The majority of the prison program’s milk production went to Darigold, and in turn much of it ended up in Costco coolers. “The guys that come out there, most of them would rather be working as much as possible instead of sitting in their (cell),” Wagner said.

Thirty-three inmates and five staff run the dairy operation, Wagner said. If inmates are selected for the job, they sign a four-month commitment to the work and stay in the dorms. Inmates apply for the open MCE jobs and have to be designated as minimum custody, clear disciplinary records and a high school diploma, or have completed their GED. Ross Wagner, agriculture director at MCE, likened the quarters to a pre-release center.

Inmates working the agriculture jobs stay in dorms outside the prison walls. “We would pick up milk every other day and deliver it to one of their bottle plants across Montana or Idaho,” Butler told the legislative budget subcommittee on Jan. The majority of MCE’s raw milk was sold to Darigold. The dairy operation includes a processing plant that churns out non-fat milk, cottage cheese and yogurt. The agriculture operations raise beef cattle and crops, all utilized in-house, MCE Director Gayle Butler told a legislative committee in January. The work program, including dog trainings, products manufacturing and other services, provides training for approximately 700 inmates, according to MCE’s website. Montana Correctional Enterprises, a division of the state corrections department, is headquartered outside of Deer Lodge near the Montana State Prison. The allocation was a source of contention among lawmakers during the legislative process: some lawmakers would have rather seen that million spent on wildlife habitat, while Berglee and others argue the money is well spent on bolstering the state pheasant population on public lands, drawing more young hunters into bird hunting. House Bill 637, sponsored by Joliet Republican Seth Berglee, did many things, among them establish a new program to raise pheasants at the prison. Lawmakers in April approved a $1 million for a new venture to fill the gap. Instead, the loss is to MCE proprietary funds.” “MCE Agriculture is 100% self-supporting and does not receive a general fund appropriation. “At this point, we do not know the entire effect of the loss of revenue as we are still adjusting our inventory levels for feed and supplement for the animals,” DOC spokesperson Carolynn Bright told the Montana State News Bureau. A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections said the entire effect of the loss of revenue won’t be fully known for about a year as MCE adjusts to the lower capacity. The end of the prison program’s contract translates to a $1.5 million loss to the work program and a reduced work program for adult male inmates housed at the facility outside of Deer Lodge.

Darigold vanilla milk