Intermountain Health Mobile Mammography Unit Provides Breast Cancer Screenings to Inmates in Montana

September 08, 2025 at 15:57 PM EDT

Intermountain Health St. James Hospital Provides Breast Cancer Screenings to Inmates with Mobile Mammography Unit

(PRUnderground) September 8th, 2025

Thanks to a program Intermountain Health St. James Hospital, Tina New, an inmate at the Riverside Women’s Correctional Facility in Boulder, Mont., recently had her first mammogram.

The bus is the Mobile Mammography Unit from St. James Hospital in Butte, and caregivers took the unit to the correctional facility earlier this month to provide 3D mammograms for the inmates.

“I was nervous at first,” New said. “But the women on the bus were so kind and made me feel very welcome.”

“Being able to provide those services while they are incarcerated really gives our female population an opportunity for early detection for breast cancer,” said Todd Boese, health services manager for the Montana Department of Corrections. “We are incredibly grateful to be supported by Intermountain Health St. James Hospital to provide this service to the 50 women here.”

The bus is designed to provide the latest mammography screening technology in a confidential, comfortable environment.

“We have had back-to-back appointments scheduled each time we visit Riverside,” said Jerri Doyle, director of Oncology Services at St. James. “It is part of our mission to ensure that all women have access to screening for breast cancer because we know that early detection saves lives. We are proud to provide the service to women and bring care to the prison.”

With 80 stops and screenings across seven counties in Montana annually, this marks the second visit of the St. James mobile mammography bus to Riverside this year, with plans underway for another.

“Seeing other people do it encourages other women to get their mammogram,” said Sandi Cantrell, an inmate at Riverside. “Cancer shows no prejudice – it’s out for all of us – and I am very blessed that they bring this care directly to us.”

Driven by its mission to serve the vulnerable and help people live the healthiest lives possible, St. James launched a mobile mammography program in 2023 to better care for the women of southwest Montana. The program removes barriers to screening by making it faster and more convenient for women to have a screening mammogram, the key to lifesaving, early detection of breast cancer.

“Some of the girls here have denied the care, so being able to show them that it’s a safe space with our best interest at heart is huge,” said New. “I am incredibly grateful to the team at St. James for providing us with kindness and access to these screenings.”

In addition to the outreach in Boulder, the Intermountain Health Mobile Mammography program based in Billings has been providing outreach services to the women’s prison in Billings quarterly, since 2016.

“We know how important these screenings are for women, so we’re thrilled that we can offer these services to our patients in Boulder,” DOC Health Services Bureau Chief Cindy Hiner said. “We appreciate the kindness and care of our DOC medical staff and the St. James medical staff who make this a seamless experience for the women receiving this important preventative care. The DOC works hard to ensure inmates are receiving the best care possible at all our secure facilities.”

About Intermountain Health

Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a nonprofit system of 33 hospitals, over 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For up-to-date information and announcements, please see the Intermountain Health newsroom at https://news.intermountainhealth.org/.

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