Why in the world did they build a jail they didn’t need in the first place?  The Governor says that the people elected to represent the people of Hardin were duped by the company that built the jail.  Then they were duped by APF.  There sure is a lot of duping going on in Hardin….time for some new elected officials?

The Hardin jail deal is off, said a spokeswoman for the cryptic California company contracted to run the for-hire hoosegow, now two years empty. Becky Shay, spokeswoman for American Police Force, said Friday that her company withdrew its offer to operate the 464-bed facility. The announcement comes after investigative reporters revealed that APF’s frontman, Serbian immigrant Michael Hilton, has a criminal record and that some APF claims about its jail proposal were bogus.The canceled deal leaves Hardin’s economic development arm, Two Rivers Authority, which owns the jail, without a contractor yet again. Officials for the organization did not respond to interview requests Friday.

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(Governor) Schweitzer said he thought the Texas-based consortium that approached Hardin, built the jail and sold the bonds to pay for it, may also have been hustling a scam.

“The people of Hardin are good people,” he said. “But the people that they have elected to serve them have been duped by con artists over and over and over and over again.”

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