DOCR capacity issues lead to ‘prioritisation’ of detainees

Charles Crane/MDN The Ward County Detention Center is unlikely to be affected by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s decision to enter an inmate prioritization period that was announced Monday.

Due to overcrowding at the North Dakota State Penitentiary, the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCR) entered a period of “prioritization”.

According to a DOCR release Monday, North Dakota’s prison system exceeded its maximum operating capacity by 1,624 male inmates in the past year, with a current population of 1,779. Despite partnerships with county jails, such as the Ward County Detention Center in Minot, to house inmates in unused bed space, the release said those extra beds are now full and the waiting list for new admissions has grown.

The inmate admission prioritization plan is implemented when the average daily inmate population in a discrete month exceeds maximum operational capacity, opening the door for DOCR to refuse individuals ordered to serve time in its custody.

“Public safety continues to be our top priority as we move into prioritization.” DOCR Director Colby Braun said in the release.

The plan classifies those inmates according to their level of offense, with class AA, A and B offenses being the first to be prioritized, according to the release. Felonies and nonviolent offenses receive lower priority for placement in state prison. The prioritization period is expected to last until sometime in November, according to DOCR information.

Those inmates in the lower priority levels who are not selected to be transferred will have to remain in the jurisdiction of county jails. Major Paul Olthoff and Ward County Sheriff Robert Roed said the Ward County Detention Center (WCDC) is in a good position to weather the prioritization period, despite currently holding 19 DOCR inmates along with four other convicts to serve the sentence with DOCR. Olthoff said WCDC can hold 286 inmates, but is currently budgeted for between 150 and 170 inmates, with the current population as of Tuesday at 183.

“I don’t know what it will look like in a month. It will depend on who is convicted. I think they will start accepting people on November 16th I think. I don’t know how it will affect us. Really, it’s just extra work for the staff because the people who would be transported are still in the facility. DOCR will compensate us for this,” Olthoff said.

While there is the option for an overdue inmate to have their sentence deferred and released to the public before their sentence ends, Steve Hall, DOCR director of transition planning, said the release status of these inmates depends largely on their sentence.

“If they were given a straight sentence without probation, then no, they would just be released from the county jail and be done with their sentence. But if they were ordered to probation as part of their criminal conviction, then yes, they would start probation with their local probation office.” Hall said.

In such a case, Hall said, it is unlikely that someone released before the end of their sentence would be returned to DOCR to complete it because of capacity issues facing the department.

“We are about 140 people over our budgeted capacity. It would take some significant changes, I think, in sentencing practices to get our population back below that. Hall said. “We would eventually like to get out of deferred incarceration and get people to jail who need to go to jail, and those who can serve time in a county jail should stay in a county jail and serve those shorter sentences.”

Assistant Director of Adult Services Rachelle Juntunen said if a county jail can’t hold lower-level offenders themselves because of their own overcrowding issues, they will follow their own prioritization plan to locate an available spot in a another unit.

Juntunen said this scenario would likely only occur for people awaiting trial, who would then be under the supervision of pretrial services personnel in the appropriate jurisdiction.

“This is an opportunity to get into the Legislature to have an honest conversation about who is in prison. I think when the general public hears about people coming out of prison or that the prison is full, there’s a sense of fear. Most people in prison are not there for a violent crime. I’m there for substance abuse,” Juntunen said. “We have an opportunity to look at that and see if we could do something else that’s cheaper and more effective to treat substance abuse than sending them to jail and hoping they get treatment that way.”