North Dakota Lawmakers Looks To Change Eligible Time Served In Prison To A Transitional Facility

BISMARCK, N.D. (KVRR) — North Dakota lawmakers are looking at a bill to alter the wording of the state’s current eligibility to stay in a transitional facility.

The bill would focus on only having individuals who have either completed eighty-five percent of their sentence, have been commuted, or have committed a non-violent crime to stay in the facility.

North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would also be the ones to determine whether an individual is not at a high-security risk and likely to be rehabilitated.

Currently, individuals in the facility do not have any requirements while there.

“North Dakota is more violent than it was and we hear all the time, don’t pass them on mandatories because of judicial discretion. That phrase is thrown about as a reason we can’t have minimum mandatories. And all we’re asking in this bill is to honor that judicial discretion and make the offenders serve a reasonable percentage of their sentence,” said Dennis Ingold, Senior State Attorney for Burleigh County.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will continue to hear testimony on Wednesday.