Bill To Allow Mothers and Young Children To Live Together In Prison Fails To Pass

BISMARCK, N.D. (KVRR) — The bill to allow young kids to live with their moms in prison has failed to pass in the Senate.

A number of lawmakers believed the bill did not provide enough concrete data and how much it would cost.

In its current state, Heart River Correctional Center in Mandan has no room for moms and their kids.

The facility would not be available until the fall of 2027.

Some legislators thought the bill was a great idea and one pointed out that it should be reintroduced next session.

“We felt like and I said in committees like I’m trying to eat a green banana. It’s not ripe yet. And we felt like to be responsible to the taxpayer and to this body with no fiscal note of what it would cost. It could be in the tens of millions of extra services it could cost. How is that going to be applied, how’s it going to be implemented? There were no answers,” said Sen. Janne Myrdal, (R) Edinburg.

The vote was twenty-nine to eighteen.