CHEYENNE - The Joint Business Council of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Indian tribes wants to build the state's new medium security prison in Fremont County, an Arapaho council member said Tuesday.

" We want the jobs," Allison Sage of Fort Washakie said Tuesday during a joint meeting of the tribal council and the Legislature's Select Committee on Tribal Relations.

Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, said the Legislature is planning to authorize construction of a medium security prison during the February budget session and suggested Sage contact a legislative committee working on the proposal.

"We're short 600 male beds," Case said, and that is why the state is forced to send male inmates to prisons out-of-state.

Later, Sen. Bill Vasey, D-Rawlins, said there had been "rumblings" that the tribes themselves want to build the prison at Riverton for the jobs.

Noting the concern of tribal members about American Indian inmates sent to out-of-state prisons, he said, "We have to gather them up and bring them back."

The two groups are hearing reports from various state government departments on services to the reservation during the two-day meeting, which concludes today.

The tribal council contends the reservation is not getting services equal to what residents pay in taxes.

Sage made his comment during a presentation to the committee from Department of Corrections (DOC) administrator Steve Lindly and Gary Starbucks, warden of the Prison Honor Farm at Riverton in Fremont County.

A report distributed to the committee said the DOC spends $4 million per year for American Indians who are on probation, parole or are inmates.

Total cost for American Indian inmates alone is $3.67 million.

In addition, the DOC pays an individual contractor $28,000 a year to supervise religious activities for American Indians, such as sweat lodges, in the four state penal institutions and also helps the staff with cultural awareness programs.

Of the 1,735 inmates in state prisons, 108, or about 6 percent, are American Indians. In addition 220 American Indians are on probation or parole in the state.

The number does not include American Indians who are prosecuted under the federal system.

In answer to tribal members' questions, Lindly said that only 12 of the more than 500 employees in state penal institutions are American Indians.

Sage asked the DOC officials if they would contract for American Indian men and women healers to visit the prisons.

Noting there are twice as many Arapahos as Shoshones on the reservation, Sage said,

"I'm here to speak for the Arapahos."

He asked for a part-time probation and parole office on the reservation. Lindly said that five officers in Riverton and two in Lander now supervise the 107 American Indians on the reservation who are on probation.

Burton Hutchinson, Sr., chairman of the Northern Arapaho council, said he is concerned about the way "our boys" are treated in jail and in prison.

"We need someone on our side," he said.

American Indian elders from the reservation used to visit the prisons and he would like that practice to be revived, he said.

Legislators on the committee, including chairman Rep. Harry Tipton, R-Riverton, mentioned the historical significance of the joint venture.

Before the committee took a lunch break, both Tipton and Case noted that the initial discussion was about equity in taxes paid by American Indians but had evolved into broader issues.

"I don't think you're ever going to get a dollar equity that makes much sense for policy," Case said.