Colby Braun, director of the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, informs the Emergency Commission about the lack of prison beds in the state on June 6, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
BY: MICHAEL ACHTERLING
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota inmates are serving longer sentences, causing prisons to run out of beds at a pace the state’s top corrections official labeled “a crisis.”
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Thursday asked the state Emergency Commission for $1.2 million to convert a dining hall at Bismarck’s Missouri River Correctional Center into a 40-person dormitory to house additional inmates.
“This is a Band-Aid to try and get us into the next session to have the bigger conversation of, what are we going to do about beds?” said Colby Braun, director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
North Dakota prisons eclipsed their capacity of 1,624 male inmates last July, Braun said. This week, the population was 1,721 male inmates.
Since last summer, the jail in McKenzie County has helped house the overflow population and soon the jail in Rugby will as well, Braun said.
County jails are typically used for inmates with short sentences or parole violations. Prison inmates that are housed in county jails miss out on state services designed to assist their rehabilitation and transition back into society, Braun said.
“You can warehouse people in rooms for up to a year, but … if you don’t get access to programming, when you go to the parole board, you’re probably not getting paroled,” Braun said.
The prison population is 200 people higher than corrections officials predicted during the legislative session. Braun attributed the increase in part to a trend of inmates serving longer sentences.
“In every crime category, people are sentenced longer than they were five years ago,” Braun said.
Braun said the department has not begun using prioritization, or deferring prison admissions. The department prefers to work with county jails that have extra space rather than impact every county, Braun said.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Brad Bekkedahl, R-Williston, questioned why the department was not working with jails in Williams and Ward counties, which were expanded during the oil boom.
Braun said it’s up to the counties to house the overflow inmates. Often it’s harder for the county jails to predict what their population will be, he said.
Gov. Doug Burgum, who chairs the Emergency Commission, said the department has to prioritize its rehabilitation mission.
“For the nonviolent folks that are there, we’re trying to make better neighbors and turn people into the workforce, not just make them better prisoners,” Burgum said.
The department’s funding request would involve renovating the dining room into space for beds, plus adding a temporary modular building to the Missouri River Correctional Center to provide dining and program space.
“I can’t say that the … dining room space that we’re looking at is the most desirable, but it’s the most feasible,” Braun said.
The Emergency Commission tabled the request for further discussion. The commission, which also includes Secretary of State Michael Howe and legislative leaders, had questions about the department’s level of spending authority and whether the Emergency Commission approving the request would comply with Century Code.
The Legislature’s Budget Section also would need to approve the emergency request. The Emergency Commission plans to meet again before the Budget Section meets June 19.
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