November 9 – BIG FORKS – to follow
a recent announcement
that the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is entering the priority-setting phase, a member of the Grand Forks County Commission and the county jail administrator believe something needs to be done at the legislative level to address overcrowding suits, which affects all levels of incarceration in North Dakota.
The announcement means state prisons can refuse to accept inmates and compensate other facilities for holding them.
“It’s something the Legislature really needs to look at,” said Bob Rost, a Grand Forks County Commission member and former sheriff.
A group of sheriffs have pledged to support the DOCR if it pursues legislative funding to expand the state’s prisons, according to Donnell Preskey, government relations specialist for the North Dakota Association of Counties. An NDACo conference also approved a resolution in support of seeking funding for public safety infrastructure in the province.
“What that does is give us the go-ahead to work with some legislators to try to find solutions for funding for counties that want to expand their jails or build new jails,” Preskey said.
However, nothing is set in stone; these are just conversations, she said. Because prisons are government agencies, funding requests must first go through the governor and then to the Legislature.
“I don’t know where (director Colby Braun) is at in pursuing additional state funds, but it’s a lengthy process,” Preskey said. “We’re probably not looking at a solution for the next five years even if the funding were approved.”
If state prisons are going to expand to accommodate the growing inmate population, planning must start now, Rost said. It is not something that is done overnight. Discussions about the expansion of the Grand Forks County Correctional Center,
currently underway,
started ten years ago.
“What has obviously happened in that time is our population has grown even more,” GFCCC Administrator Bret Burkholder said. “If we don’t want to be, as I say, ‘the dog chasing their tail,’ we need to do something different in terms of who we lock up and so on.”
Perhaps the Legislature should consider alternatives to incarceration, he said, and adjust which charges require someone to be sent to jail in the first place.
“That’s where it has to start,” Burkholder said. “Because once (law enforcement officers) arrest someone, I have no choice but to detain them.”
Driving under suspension is a common charge among those at the GFCCC; in the week of October 20-26, five people were booked for it. Perhaps instead of taking people into custody for the violation, their vehicles could be impounded, Burkholder said. They could pay to get their vehicle out, instead of paying to be released. Abandoned vehicles can be sold, with the money going to the province.
“For example, a change in the law like this would mean that all of these individuals currently incarcerated for a DUS would not be in our jails, while creating a source of revenue for the county,” Burkholder said. “This would also deter individuals from lending their cars to people without a valid driver’s license for fear of their car being seized.”
This is just one example and whatever is decided should have input from multiple entities, including prosecutors, judges and the public, he said. And the issue of liability for people allowed back into society will have to be addressed, Rost said.
The state’s prison statistics don’t paint a pretty picture, Burkholder said; Despite a national decline in the number of inmates with violent crimes, the DOCR reports a 57.9% increase in the number of non-sexual violent offenders between 2014 (21.4%) and 2023 (33.8%).
“If prison has a 50% increase in violent crime, I don’t think you’re going to get support from the citizens of North Dakota, for example, to let those people out on the streets any sooner than they do now. ” he said. “But as it relates to some of the others – whether it is a DUS or whatever it may be – that must also be the will of the people. It affects them too. And that will come – if it comes at all – from a bill sponsored and passed in our legislature.”
One change that has already eased some of the pressure on local and regional facilities is pretrial release services, which Grand Forks County has been using for less than a year. There are currently 52 people in custody, many of whom would be going to bed in the county jail without these resources, Burkholder said.
Pretrial release also allows people to continue their work, hopefully maintain their housing and other needs, and possibly even put money toward future restitution.
Burkholder and Rost agree that DOCR’s recent announcement is concerning because the prison is only now catching up to demand for space, which has been declining for some time.
As of Wednesday, October 30, there were 216 inmates at the Grand Forks County Correctional Center. In September, there was an average of just under 223 prisoners in custody per day.
“That’s kind of what we’ve been doing for a while,” Burkholder said. “That far exceeds our functional capacity of 180, and is now approaching 100% of all beds in the general population, at 226.”
The current expansion project will create 72 additional beds; however, they will all be in dormitories, so anyone who needs to stay in a private cell will not be housed by the expansion. The project Burkholder originally proposed was scaled back due to budget constraints. Money will always play a big role in what the county — and the state — can do, he said.
As of Oct. 28, 110 men had been transported to DOCR this year, Burkholder said. Another 16 are expected to be transported before Nov. 19, the last day for which the state prison has admitted inmates.
“I’m very happy that I was able to get that 16 because that will help a lot,” he said.
If a defendant is sentenced to a year or more, he is typically expected to be sent to state prison, rather than serving time in a county or regional jail. However, time served prior to sentencing is taken into account and will be considered even lighter in the DOCR’s prioritization plan.
“So if we have someone who has a year and a day, but he has, let’s say, 90 days of credit for time served, then there’s a good chance we won’t see him go to jail,” Burkholder said .
