11/12/2025
Montana prisoners housed in Mississippi facility endure hot water outage
By Darrell Ehrlick, 2 hrs ago
Daily
Daily Montanan
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The entrance to the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi (Photo from Core Civic).
Montana inmates were again experiencing problems with water this week.
This time, though, it wasn’t in Deer Lodge and the solution didn’t take weeks.
Family members and inmates reported on Tuesday morning the hot water in a private prison in Mississippi had been out, with no communication on how long it would last.
Core Civic, the private-prison operator which contracts with the State of Montana and runs facilities in several locations, says that hot water has been restored to its Tutwiler, Mississippi facility after just 24 hours. The State of Montana contracts with Core Civic to house male inmates at the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility.
This isn’t the first water issue for MT inmates this fall. For several weeks in October, crews worked around the clock and the Montana National Guard was called in to help solve water supply issues to the Department of Correction’s largest facility, the Montana State Prison, in Deer Lodge. Those problems have recently been resolved and water there has been flowing normally and has been tested as safe, according to Montana Department of Corrections Officials.
A spokesperson for the company said the problem was reported, addressed and corrected all within a day. Ryan Gustin, Senior Director for Public Affairs released this statement after the Daily Montanan inquired about the situation:
“The safety, health and well-being of those in our care and the staff at all our facilities, including Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility (TCCF), is our top priority. Earlier today, TCCF facility staff were made aware of an issue related to a lack of hot water, which was affecting several housing units. The maintenance staff at TCCF quickly isolated an issue with one of the facility boilers. They were able to address this issue within a short period of time and all hot water to the facility has been restored. At no point did the issue with the boiler impact the facility heat. It’s important to note that at all our facilities, including TCCF, we have contingency plans in place to address issues such as this if the repair were to take longer than expected.
“TCCF staff conduct inspections on all housing units, at least once per shift, to monitor for any maintenance-related issues. If any issue related to the physical plant is observed, a maintenance work order is generated immediately. Maintenance work orders are typically resolved within 24 hours, as was the case here.”
Officials with the Montana Department of Corrections confirmed the situation on Wednesday and said they’re also monitoring the situation in Mississippi.
As of Wednesday, the department’s dashboard showed 239 inmates from Montana housed at that facility. Montana can send a maximum of 240 inmates there. Currently, Montana has 3,356 inmates housed throughout its different facilities.
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