By: Jeff Beach
A committee passed amendments and removed a key provision in a contentious prison sentencing bill Monday.
The House Judiciary Committee still gave Senate Bill 2128 a do-not-pass recommendation.
Committee chair Rep. Lawrence Klemin, R-Bismarck, who authored some of the amendments to the bill, said it wasn’t clear how the changes would affect the cost estimate of the bill.
Klemin said his intention was that a new cost estimate would be generated for the bill.
The original intent of the bill, which came from North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley’s office, was to ensure that criminals housed by the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spend more of their sentence behind bars.
The fiscal note tied to the original bill estimated the cost to the state at $22.7 million in the 2025-27 biennium and $21.3 million for the following two years.
North Dakota’s prison system is already overcrowded and Rep. Steve Vetter, R-Grand Forks, wondered how the original bill could be workable.
“Where are these people going to go?” Vetter asked, adding that there is no plan to build more prison space.
Colby Braun, director of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, has contended that the original bill would cut off access to rehabilitation programs and halfway houses.
The amendments remove a key provision requiring that offenders serve at least 50% of their sentence behind bars before being eligible for a halfway house or parole.
The amendments include ensuring that prisoners are eligible to go into a halfway house for the last six months of their sentences and adding money for electronic monitoring bracelets and penalties for tampering with an electronic monitoring device.
The amendments passed on a 8-5 vote. A do-not-pass recommendation made by Rep. Bill Tveit, R-Hazen, passed 9-5.
Tveit resisted the Klemin amendments as continuing a soft-on-crime policy and said the state can afford the costs of sending prisoners to another state if North Dakota doesn’t have room.
The amended bill gives Legislative Management the option to study parole and the state corrections system.
“The parole board is a really big player and we haven’t heard from them,” Klemin said.
Klemin said the amended bill could be a bridge until the studies could provide legislators with more guidance.
The bill still includes additional penalties for fleeing and assaulting officers.
The amendments will need to be approved on the House floor. If approved the bill will likely be heard in the House Appropriations Committee next week, according to committee chair Rep. Don Vigesaa, R-Cooperstown.
