BOULDER - As part of a national initiative to spotlight successful correctional programs, Gov. Steve Bullock visited the Riverside Correctional Facility here – and heard nothing but praise from women in its re-entry program.

“I want people to feel the energy I’ve gotten, to feel the compassion that I’ve gotten,” said Darci Hill of Billings. “I mean, the other places that I’ve been, they put you in your room and you stay in your room, and if you cry, you cry all night. … These people lift you up.”

Hill and two other women said they’d gone through multiple other programs in Montana’s correctional system, run by private contractors and the state, but had experienced none as positive as the Riverside Recovery and Re-Entry Program, which is run by the Department of Corrections.

“We’re always doing things here; we’re taking action,” said Kayte Mutrie of Helena, who graduated from the program and now has a job as a park ranger, which she had before getting in trouble with the law. “It’s not just about sitting around and wallowing in what you did wrong, why you’re bad.

“There’s so much shame attached to addiction. And here, I just felt like I was valued for who I was as an individual.”

[To read more of this story by Mike Dennison, go to http://www.ktvq.com/story/3614...bullock-pays-a-visit]