House Business and Labor opened a hearing on House Bill 718, which would establish an Office of Reentry Services in the Department of Labor and Industry, sponsor Representative Kerri Seekins‑Crow told the committee.

Representative Kerri Seekins‑Crow, the bill sponsor, said the office is intended to help “those who are justice involved” finish their transition out of corrections and reduce recidivism by coordinating services from pre‑release through “off paper” supervision and into employment.

Sarah Swanson, commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, told the committee the bill would place a small office in the department’s Workforce Services Division and coordinate multiple state agencies. “This directs one small team to be established within the Workforce Service Division of the Department of Labor and it requires government to talk to each other,” Swanson said. She summarized the department’s fiscal estimate: a first‑year state special revenue cost of $510,773, built on three full‑time positions, roughly $95,000 in operating expenses and $125,000 in grants or direct supports for training or program services.

Swanson said the office would draw on the employment security account (state special revenue) rather than the state general fund and would require administrative rulemaking to finalize how grant funds are awarded.

Proponents described the office as a coordination and workforce effort. Scott Eichner, identified as a rehabilitation program chief at the Department of Corrections, said the proposal treats “workforce development as a team sport” and voiced departmental support. Angela Dewolfking, director of transfer and special projects at the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, told the committee that prison education and flexible entry points into college and career training reduce recidivism and that the Montana University System wants to be part of coordinated reentry planning.

Mandy Rambo, deputy/acting director at the Department of Commerce, said Commerce would support housing coordination and noted a pending public comment period on a PHA administrative plan that includes a preference for participants in treatment courts. Representatives of nonprofit groups and people with lived experience also spoke in favor. Amy Sings‑in‑the‑Timber, for the Montana Innocence Project, cited research that coordinated reentry programs can lower recidivism by 20–30 percent and argued the office would reduce the gap people often face immediately after release. Mae Simmons, who said she is formerly incarcerated, described long experience advocating for reentry services and urged passage.

No opponents appeared. The committee did not take a recorded vote on HB 718 during the hearing; committee members asked no questions at the time the hearing record in the transcript closed.

If enacted as described in testimony, the office would be housed in the Department of Labor and Industry’s Workforce Services Division, start with three staff members and use state special revenue (employment security account) to cover startup costs and a small grants line for training and services. The bill’s supporters said the measure aims to lower recidivism and connect justice‑involved Montanans to work and housing services, while formal program design and grant administration would be set by subsequent rulemaking.