A dozen residents and several commissioners voiced opposition Wednesday night to having a Montana women’s prison built and operated in Butte, saying it will lock the city into a “prison town” image it doesn’t want.

It will stifle economic growth, they said, rely on county services and infrastructure without paying property taxes and shouldn’t be forced on Butte if Butte doesn’t want it.

“I want to talk about some of the slogans we hear when we think about Butte,” Kim Walsh-Daugherty told commissioners. “We are the ‘Can Do City. ‘Butte America.’ ‘Butte tough.’ ‘Butte rats.’ I think when we think of all these sayings, we show a sense of pride and individuality with our great city.

“The term ‘prison city’ is not the label that would leave the legacy a generational Butte family would be pro

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