North Dakota’s ‘Truth-in-Sentencing’ Bill Could Cost More Than $250 Million
A bill to reduce opportunities for early release and work programs for North Dakota inmates is advancing through the state legislature, but the steep price tag has pitted the prison system against the bill’s biggest supporter—the state attorney general.
Senate Bill 2128 would require violent offenders in North Dakota to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences in prison—a so-called “truth-in-sentencing” provision—before they could be eligible for release to a halfway house or other transitional program. It would also create mandatory sentences of 14 to 30 days for those convicted of resisting arrest, assaulting law enforcement officers, and felony fleeing.
The bill is currently awaiting a vote at the state Senate Appropriations Committee before moving to the Senate floor.
Republican North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, the bill’s primary advocate, says it would stop dangerous, repeat offenders from being released back into the public after serving only a fraction of their sentence.Â
“What we’ve identified is there is a complete lack of truth in sentencing in North Dakota,” Wrigley told Minot Daily News earlier this month. “There’s no transparency. There’s no accountability, and to top it off, you won’t be surprised, there are no results. There are no results that would ever support a system that is systematically letting violent criminals out the side door in many cases well before they’re paroled, and in every case, well before they’ve served their sentence.”
However, the legislation has alarmed not only criminal justice advocates and civil liberties groups, but the North Dakota prison
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