Last summer, Montana created a list of more than a dozen upgrades for its state prison facilities to protect inmates and staffers from covid-19 infections, all of which would be paid for with nearly $2.5 million in federal covid relief money. But the money, part of$700 million in aid to states to detect and mitigate covid’s spread in prisons, jails, and other confinement facilities, sat untouched as of mid-February. Not a single project has begun despite the omicron surge that led to a new outbreak of covid cases among Montana State Prison inmates in January. That delay has left weak points wi…