On April 6th, 2026 - 

• There were 153 persons in custody at the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center - 25 were female and 128 were male (figure 1). 

• The average age of persons in custody was 37 years old. Fifty-four persons were between the ages of 35 and 44, about one-third of those in custody, and 49 were between the ages of 25 and 34 (figure 2).

• Seventy-eight percent of persons in custody were White, 12% were American Indian or Alaska Native, 5% had an unknown race, 2% each were either Black or Asian and 1% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (figure 3). 

• Sixty-five persons in custody were arrested by the Helena Police Department and 47 were arrested by the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office (figure 4). 

• More than half of persons custody reported being employed (55%) (figure 5). 

• Seventy-six percent of all persons in custody reported at least one health concern at intake. Forty-four percent of persons in custody reported being on prescription medications, 41% recorded having a diagnosed mental illness, 24% reported currently using illicit drugs, 20% were noted to have high blood pressure, 18% have allergies to foods or products, and 16% were noted to have alcohol or drug withdrawal risk (figure 6).

• About half of the in-custody population, (52%) reported having medical insurance; 83% of those insured reported being on public insurance such as Medicare or Medicaid and 6% had a form of private insurance (figure 7).

• There were 100 individuals held on a bond, with a median bond amount of $25,000. Bond amounts ranged from a low of $1,000 to a high of $1,250,000 (figure 8).

• The median length of current stay among the in-custody population was a little longer than 2 months (64 days). There are 11 people who have been in custody for longer than one year (figure 9). 

• Over three-quarters (78%) of the in-custody population was being held pretrial. Another 13% are convicted and 9% are in custody due to parole or probation holds or violations (figure 10). 

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Figure 10. 

Behavioral Health Encounters Each Month

• Since February 2023, there have been 6,400 behavioral health encounters in the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center (figure 1). The lowest number of encounters during this period was 44 in October 2023; this was during a time when the number of behavioral health staff decreased from 4 down to 2 staff. It wasn’t until July 2024 when 2 more staff – specifically permanent behavioral health therapists - were added back to the team and the number of encounters began to increase dramatically. From July 2024 to December 2025, the number of encounters that occurred each month quadrupled from 99 to 424 during this period. In February 2026, there were 311 encounters. 

Figure 1. 

• There are two main types of behavioral health services offered in the detention center – behavioral health therapy and care coordination. Behavioral health therapy encounters include crisis stabilization, de-escalation, and therapeutic interventions. Care coordination encounters aim to assist individuals with successful transitions to the community. Staff advocate on the client’s behalf, facilitate access to needed services, guide clients through community resource options, and assist clients in reducing barriers to community reintegration upon release. During this 3-year period, there have been fluctuations in the service type delivered that coincided with reductions and increases in staff. There was only one temporary behavioral health therapist on staff from January to June 2024, resulting in low numbers of therapy encounters during this time. Throughout the first half of 2025, there were similar numbers of encounters for both types of services (between 90 and 130 encounters of each per month), and then in June 2025 the number of behavioral health therapy encounters started to increase (figure 2). 

Figure 2. 

• For all months during this time, more male clients were seen per month than female clients. However, the differences have fluctuated (figure 3). When there was a drop-off in behavioral health staff in 2023, it primarily impacted the number of men seen per month. From September to October 2023, the number of men seen dropped from 147 to 28 (an 80% decrease) while the number of women decreased from 40 to 16 (a 60% decrease). Following the mid-2024 increase in staff, the gender gap again widened. In late 2025, the number of male and female clients peaked, with a high of 272 male clients and 152 female clients seen in December. There have never been more than 10 total persons seen in a month who identify as transgender or non-binary and for over 75% of months in this period, zero transgender or non-binary persons were seen. 

Figure 3. 

Time Spent with Behavioral Health Clients

• From February 2023 to February 2026, staff spent a total of 2,666 hours with clients. The minimum number of minutes with a client was 2, the median was 60 minutes, and the maximum was 4,941 minutes (nearly 83 hours spent with one client). 75% of all clients spent less than 190 minutes with behavioral health staff. 

• Figure 4 shows the number of unique clients receiving services, with each bar representing 30 minutes spent with staff. This analysis is limited to only those who spent less than 15 hours (900 minutes) receiving behavioral health services over this period, resulting in 29 clients being excluded from the graphic. There were 344 clients who spent 1-30 minutes with staff during this period. Another 128 clients spent between 31 minutes and 60 minutes with staff during their time in custody.

• Considering all clients who received behavioral health services during this 3-year period, the minimum number of encounters was 1, the median was 3, and the maximum was 104. There were 311 clients who only had one encounter with staff (about one third of all clients) and 148 who had two visits with staff (16% of all clients). Figure 5 below shows the number of encounters per client, excluding the 32 clients who had more than 30 unique encounters with staff. 

Figure 5. 

• On March 20th, 2026, there were 44 individuals actively assigned to the Post-Adjudication Supervision Services (PASS) Program (figure 1).  These individuals had 51active cases monitored as part of the PASS program. Individuals assigned to PASS doubled from May 2025 (20 persons) to October 2025 (40 persons), with the program reaching its highest ever levels of participation in February 2026 (47 persons). 

Figure 1.

• On March 20th, 2026, there were 307 individuals actively assigned to pretrial services (PTS) in Lewis and Clark County with 383 active cases (figure 2). These are the highest numbers of persons and cases that have been supervised in the past year. Active individuals and cases are those for which PTS had been assigned, the person is on pretrial release and is actively being monitored by pretrial service officers. These numbers do not include persons and their cases that have been assigned to PTS who have not been released from the detention center. It also does not include other cases a person may have pending that were not assigned and are not being actively monitored or tracked by PTS. Since April 2025, there have been between 275 and 300 individuals in the community at any given time who are actively part of the PTS program.

Figure 2.

• Actively supervised PTS cases that were assigned a Public Safety Assessment (PSA) score that are disposed within each quarter of the year are examined for two measures of success: 1) did the individual attend all required court appearances for the assigned case and 2) was the defendant not arrested on any new charges during the pretrial period. For these cases, the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) completes a background check for the defendant and determines if they qualify as a successful case. These metrics do not include persons in Lewis and Clark County who were not assigned to PTS, such as those released pretrial on their own recognizance or those who posted bond, or persons supervised on PTS who may not have received a PSA score. For tracked cases closed from October 1st, 2025 to December 31st, 2025, 95% made all court appearances and 78% remained law abiding (figure 3). 

Figure 3. 

 

• There were 53 cases that had been assigned a PSA, were monitored by PTS, and were disposed during the period of October 1st, 2025 to December 31st, 2025 (figure 4). Of those closed cases, persons were either released pretrial (40 persons) or they remained in detainment throughout the entirety of the pretrial period (13 persons). For those 40 released, success was measured in two ways – all court appearances were made and the individual remained law abiding. All but two persons made all their court appearances. There were 9 persons who had new criminal offenses during the pretrial period (22% of cases). Of these, 5 had a new misdemeanor offense and 4 had a new felony offense. 

Figure 4.

This section contains information about the types of behavioral health encounters recorded by staff in the detention center during 2025 and the characteristics of unique clients who received behavioral health services during the calendar year. There were 3,223 encounters with 391 unique clients.

All Behavioral Health Encounters

• The number of behavioral health therapy sessions delivered in the detention center increased throughout 2025, rising from 83 encounters in January 2025 to 285 encounters in December 2025 (figure 1). The number of care coordination encounters was more stable during the year, with the fewest encounters occurring in August (86) and the most in November (150).

Figure 1.

• More men were assisted as part of behavioral health services in 2025 than women, however the number of sessions working with both increased steadily throughout the year (figure 2).

Figure 2.

• About two-thirds (68%) of all behavioral health encounters in the detention center lasted 15 minutes or less (figure 3). Five percent of encounters lasted more than 45 minutes.

Figure 3.

• Ninety three percent of all care coordination encounters were 30 minutes or less (figure 4). Behavioral health therapy encounters were more likely to last longer, with 17% being 31 minutes or more.

Figure 4.

• Following 84% of all behavioral health encounters, a client was determined to require continuing services (figure 5). 8% were discharged and were to remain in jail following the encounter. Less than 2% were discharged and released back to the community following the encounter.

Figure 5.

Behavioral Health Therapy Encounters

• In care coordination encounters, staff are often not addressing specific mental or behavioral health needs. Therefore, addressing a known diagnosis may not be part of the encounter. This section considers only behavioral health therapy encounters as these are conducted by a therapist with knowledge of the clients’ medical history. The most common diagnosis treated during a behavioral health therapy session was listed as “other” (29%) which may have included a wide variety of mental or behavioral health diagnoses (figure 6). The next most addressed issue was a mood disorder, which 18% of all encounters were related to.  The least commonly treated diagnoses were anxiety disorder (5%) and post-traumatic stress disorder (5%).

Figure 6.

• There were differences in the diagnoses treated in behavioral health therapy for men and women (figure 7). While an “other” diagnosis was most common for both, for women the next highest diagnosis treated was a mood disorder (32% of all encounters). For men, a depression diagnosis was the second most common (23%). Men were twice as likely to be treated for a schizophrenia diagnosis (16%) than women (7%) and women were twice as likely to be treated for PTSD (9%) than men (4%).

Figure 7.

• There was a substantial increase in the number of behavioral health therapy encounters related to depression at the end of 2025, rising from 26 in November to 112 in December (figure 8). The number of behavioral health therapy encounters treating mood disorders also increased during the year, rising from a low of 11 encounters in April up to a high of 53 in July and then remaining between 35 and 48 per month during the rest of the year.

Figure 8. 

Behavioral Health Clients

• In 2025, there were a total of 391 unique clients that received behavioral health services in the detention center – 72% were male, 28% were female, and less than 1% were transgender men (figure 9). Females comprised a greater percentage of behavioral health clients than their representation in the detention center population generally (about 20% of the custody population but 28% of clients). These 391 clients received 3,223 sessions or encounters with staff during 2025. The range of encounters with staff ranged from a low of one session per client to a high of 91 sessions with a single client.

Figure 9.

• Most clients (82%) were white, 9% of clients were American Indian or Alaska Native, 4% had an unknown race, 3% were black, and 1% or less were either Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or Asian (figure 10). The racial breakdown of behavioral health clients is the same the in-custody population during 2025, where while persons were 81% of the average daily population and American Indian or Alaska Native persons were 9% of the average daily population.

Figure 10.

• Of those with known educational attainment, half (51%) reported their highest educational attainment was a high school diploma (figure 11). About one in five (22%) had completed less than a high school diploma.  Twelve percent of clients had attained any kind of college degree (associate’s, bachelor’s or graduate degree).

Figure 11.

• Nearly half (49%) of all unique behavioral health clients with a known employment status were unemployed, 36% were employed, and 15% were otherwise out of the labor force (retired, disabled, students, etc.) (figure 12).

Figure 12.

• Thirty-two percent of clients were living in a private residence independently prior to their incarceration and 26% were homeless (figure 13). About one third (34%) had an unknown or other housing situation prior to incarceration.

Figure 13. 

Lewis and Clark County Detention Center Programs in 2025 

• In 2025, there were 420 unique programs delivered within the detention center to 3,966 program attendees (figure 1). 
• One third of all program attendees were female (1,302 participants) and two-thirds were male (2,664 participants) (not shown in figures).
• The library, a physical space within the detention center where individuals can check out books to bring back to their housing units, was open 124 times during the year (an average of 10 times per month) and library visitors comprised 66% of all detention center program attendees during the year (figures 1, 3).
• The number of program attendees increased during the year, from a low of 257 attendees in February to a high of 415 attendees in November. From January to December, there was a 17% increase in attendance (figure 2).
• There were 150 different recovery and wellness support programs – Alcoholics Anonymous (67), Narcotics Anonymous (61), and sponsor visits (22) – offered in 2025 that served 481 attendees (figure 1).
• Twenty-one percent of all participants during 2025 attended spiritual and cultural programs (figure 3). 
• Females comprised half of all participants in Narcotics Anonymous programs, 70% of Alcoholics Anonymous participants, and 100% of all sponsor visits in 2025 (figure 4). 

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