The Montana Department of Corrections plans to expand and renovate the Riverside Correctional Facility, a low-security women’s prison in Boulder. The project will double the compound’s capacity, raising it to roughly 100 over the next several years.

Corrections spokesperson Carolynn Stocker said the agency has not determined the cost of the renovation. This is the first major project funded by House Bill 833, a roughly $250 million corrections spending package championed by state Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda.

The agency plans to use the money to increase the state’s prison capacity.

In June, DOC indicated it was nonexclusively eyeing Hardin, Butte and the greater Boulder area as locations for building a new women’s prison with the money in HB 833. But at a Tuesday press event at Ri

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