
If you can read then you already know the sane idea bringing together a conservative activist and tranny legislator is hiring an ombudsman, but for whom? Also, what IS an ombudsman?
Let’s start with the last thing first:

Now that you know what an “ombudsmen” is, let’s look at a local article explaining what Zooey Zephyr is proposing in the Law and Justice Interim Committee:
On Tuesday, the Law and Justice Interim Committee voted 5-4 to support legislation that would create a program providing independent oversight of the Department of Corrections housed in the Governor’s Office. The bill will be introduced by either Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, or Rep. Katie Fire Thunder, D-Bozeman.
The oversight would come in the form of an ombudsperson position, of which Montana already has several, including the Department of Justice’s Office of the Child and Family Ombudsman.
DOC Director Eric Strauss has previously said the department was “pretty agnostic” to the idea, but not inherently against the concept.
Ok, so what’s the conservative argument for hiring an ombudsmen?
After listening to the X spaces where Cat Holley, the conservative activist, briefly referenced the idea behind this bill, the argument (as I understand it) is a fiscally conservative argument asserting the need for “independent oversight” before lawsuits descend over HOW BAD Montana jails and prisons are.
When I wrote yesterday’s post I began with an article about Cascade County’s jail, then focused on the “non-profit” law firm, Upper Seven Law, and their assistance in helping aliens, not citizens, get out of jail, but it’s CITIZENS who are dying while incarcerated, according to this July article:
Four Montana inmates have died at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Mississippi this year, bringing the total deaths among inmates in Montana Department of Corrections custody to 14 in 2026.
That’s according to Department of Corrections officials, who appeared before legislators during a Law and Justice Interim Committee meeting this week. The committee has been digging into complaints around the facility this summer.
Since a good majority of people in Montana jails and prisons are poor, they can usually die without anyone caring too much about it, but if enough poors die, well, at some point a lawyer is gonna start smelling money in the form of “class action”, so I do think it could be fiscally sound policy to mitigate risk with a legislative bolstering of independent oversight via an ombudsmen.
One problem I’m anticipating with politicians doing something sane and beneficial for the poors, though, is the high likelihood of covert partisan seepage into this topic, which Montanans are pretty ignorant about, thanks to local media. That’s why I wrote what I did yesterday about the “non-profit” law firm, and it’s why I wrote about the transformation of the Montana Human Rights Network into the more innocuous sounding “Catalyst Montana”, which I see is moving into this ombudsman policy topic.
I wonder why?

The founder of 406Revolutionized, Amanda McKnight, recently got on my radar after she used a Missoula tasing incident to get a violent cop in Missoula reprimanded, which is a good start to addressing Montana’s law enforcement crisis. But, other than getting an individual cop reprimanded, it’s going to take A LOT MORE WORK to deal with the law-breaking law enforcers who are running the jails and ready to support AG, Austin Knudsen, for Governor when he inevitably runs.
That’s why I don’t see collaborating with Catalyst Montana as being productive for non-partisan coalition building, since they literally employed a Democrat legislator:

For further evidence of Catalyst Montana’s interest in funding an ombudsmen position for the Montana prison system, here’s the part of the previously quoted article highlighting this “advocacy organization’s” involvement:
Fire Thunder introduced the legislation to the committee earlier this year. Catalyst Montana, an advocacy organization based in Missoula, has supported the idea, which was originally presented to legislators by Amanda McKnight, who began advocating for transparency after a severe water crisis at Montana State Prison a year ago.
People who have incarcerated family members, including McKnight, have been frustrated with what they say is poor communication from the agency, visits being canceled, slow medical care and inmate transfers to out-of-state facilities with little or no notice.
What this “advocacy organization” rife with agenda-driven Democrats won’t tell you is there’s no fixing a PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX that took four decades to build under BOTH political parties, especially when shitty Sheriffs, like Jesse Slaughter, are allowed to change their political colors like a chameleon to help camouflage how his wild west cowboy-deputies are too stupid and corrupt to understand the basic protections enshrined in our Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
In case you’re wondering, this is what a narrative controlling, punk-ass bitch with qualified immunity looks like:

You should have stayed a Democrat, Jesse, because it suited you better than the Republican LARP you’re pushing now.
I wrote about Cascade County and law enforcement recently in this post about a new County being envisioned for Montana, since residents of the Treasure State are THAT DESPERATE to get away from idiotic Tax Increment Financing schemes, but even WITH a more robust General Fund supporting first responders, I’m not sure the problems with law enforcers and jailers can be addressed if we don’t find a way to identify and handle SERIOUS corruption–the kind that gives law enforcers in Montana the impression they can get away with murder.
To continue this theme of weak confidence in local law enforcers, north of Missoula, in Ronan, residents are wondering what they’re getting from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office for what they are paying, and this wondering got the attention of local media:
A dispute between the Lake County Sheriff’s Department and the city of Ronan is growing over how much law enforcement coverage Ronan should have and who should pay for it.
The dispute became public on April 8, 2026, when Lake County Sheriff Don Bell and Undersheriff Levi Read spoke during public comment at a Ronan city council meeting, according to meeting minutes. They inquired about 24-hour coverage. Audio from that meeting was unavailable.
When you keep reading this article, like I did, you discover the top “city” cop in Ronan is ALSO getting some critical scrutiny:
Read also detailed serious concerns about Police Chief Jacobson’s communication practices, including refusing to check in with dispatch, deactivating GPS tracking, and failing to respond to emergency calls, including a domestic violence incident. Ronan officials declined comment, but their attorney provided a summary.
The County’s proposal generally contemplates Ronan Police Department coverage from 7:00 a.m. until 3:00 a.m., with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office providing coverage from 3:00 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. The Sheriff’s Office also proposed handling calls requiring immediate action during its coverage period and referring appropriate non-emergency City matters back to the Ronan Police Department. The parties also discussed improved communication concerning coverage and continued mutual law-enforcement assistance.
Combine this with what’s going on in MINERAL County with outgoing Sheriff, Ryan Funke, and his lawyer, Lance Jasper, and one might really start to wonder how this state plans on handling its population growth.
I wanted to hear from both sides of this bipartisan ombudsmen bill effort, but as of this writing only one person was willing to speak with me directly, and that’s the person NOT connected to Catalyst Montana, which makes sense, since CM doesn’t think talking to both sides of certain topics is worth doing.


What else did I learn about the “non-profit” work of Catalyst Montana from their website?
Oh, you know, just stuff about terrible militia people, terrible white nationalists, and that terrible Freedom Caucus–totally non-partisan stuff, of course.


If Republicans and Democrats don’t find common ground over strategies to improve the conditions of incarceration for Montanans then litigation will eventually come, and it will highlight how corrupt Sheriffs can’t be expected to competently run detention facilities in Montana. Will the cost of THAT be more or less than hiring an ombudmen?
Speaking of cost, in Flathead County, voters authorized a $105 million bond for a new jail last year. In Yellowstone County, funding a jail expansion is also being discussed, while Missoula is budgeting $3.5 million for jail renovations after turning down a $5 million dollar request to fix the pipes.
Last month, when I was looking through the list of new requests for Missoula County’s 2027 budget, a denial caught my eye — $5 million to replace water pipes in the jail that “leak multiple times per week.”
After some brainstorming, Commissioner Josh Slotnick and county staff identified a way to pay for the project’s reduced $3.5 million-price-tag. But it’s not the only fix needed at the aging Missoula County Detention Center.
While 27 years might not seem that old for critical infrastructure like water pipes, the jail is different from other buildings, Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen told me Thursday during a meeting with the Missoula County commissioners and other staff members.
“The water is continuously used, and the copper wears out,” he said.
In Mineral County, a Facebook post highlighted how a recent jail expenditure for appliances might not be getting properly documented:

Does Montana need an ombudsmen position? Yes, we do. Will we get one? I don’t know, but if sanity wins out, we need to ensure the job is TRULY INDEPENDENT and capable of holding people accountable at the highest level possible. If Catalyst Montana has their way, I suspect this issue will look more and more partisan as their “advocacy” work infiltrates this topic to politically benefit their chosen marginalized populations.
I hope I’m wrong about that.
Thanks for reading!












































