Corrections director warns prison system overcapacity, says new women’s facility and pretrial work are urgent

Colby Braun, director of the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the Senate Appropriations Committee that the state prison system is operating above capacity and that the department has used prioritization to manage admissions while county jails remain under pressure.

Braun said the men’s system has 1,624 design beds but that the department’s daily population has exceeded that level this biennium; at one point he told the committee the population reached roughly 1,878, about “250‑ish” beds over capacity. He said the women’s system capacity is about 262 beds (including 36 recently added beds), and the department averaged 271 women in custody in December.

Why it matters: Braun framed the capacity problem as a combination of longer sentences, steady admissions and constrained reentry support. He warned the committee that without a mix of capital investments, additional treatment and community‑based supports, the department will continue to rely on county jails and, at times, defer prison admissions.

Key points

- Overcapacity and deferred admissions: Braun said the department had 41 people on deferred admissions on a single recent Monday and that those deferrals had concentrated in a handful of counties (Burleigh County had 15 and Cass County eight on that snapshot). “On Monday we had 41 people on deferred admissions,” he told senators; the practice is used in cooperation with county jails and is intended to prioritize violent and high‑need admissions.

- Women’s facility: Braun discussed the multi‑year design effort for a new women’s facility and the steering committee’s decisions to restore several elements cut for budget reasons (mechanical penthouses, refrigerated storage, added vocational space, overnight mother‑child visitation and a usable outdoor recreation space). He said the first construction bid package has been opened and the project remains on target. “We’ve opened up the first bid package. So the first bid package is out. And we are on target to complete on time on October 27,” Braun told the committee when asked about schedule and procurement.

- Pretrial services and jail relief: Braun highlighted the department’s pretrial services pilot, expanded to additional counties, as a major factor reducing jail populations. Using Burleigh County as an example, he said pretrial supervision kept 403 people in the community on a given day—meaning roughly 242 fewer people would have been in the county jail under earlier practices. Braun reported judges have praised the program: “This is the best thing the DOCR has ever done,” he said the judiciary told the department.

- Staffing and turnover: Braun said turnover and compressed pay scales have reduced average experience on some front lines. He presented exit‑survey figures showing 71% of departing employees reported they had another job, 62% said they were being paid more, and 79% indicated they would work for DOCR again. He also said average frontline tenure at the Youth Correction Center dropped from about 14 years in 2017 to about 2.6 years in 2024.

- Costs and program returns: Braun summarized daily costs: roughly $148 per day to house a person in a DOC facility, about $7.68 per day for parole or probation supervision, and about $1.48 per day per person in pretrial services. He used those figures to underline policy choices about where additional funding produces the largest public‑safety returns.

Discussion and follow‑up

Senators asked whether the department is leaving federal dollars on the table, how juvenile detention and youth corrections beds are used statewide, and whether mandatory minimum sentencing proposals would further increase prison demand (Braun said the department would analyze fiscal notes tied to sentencing changes). Members asked the department to provide specific dollar estimates for pay equity needed to recruit and retain correctional staff; Braun agreed to deliver those figures for the subcommittee.

Other items

- Victims assistance: Braun told the committee the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) allocations have fallen since 2018; VOCA funding to the state declined from about $8.1 million in earlier years to roughly $2.4 million in fiscal 2024, which reduces available grants for victim services across the state.

- Reentry and community partnerships: Braun emphasized partnerships with job service, treatment providers and community nonprofits as essential to reducing recidivism. He described pilot programs that connect parole/probation supervision with employment services and Medicaid access to ensure people leaving custody have treatment and housing support.

Ending

Braun told the committee the corrections system needs a mix of capital investment, staff recruitment and community reinvestment to stabilize populations and improve public safety. He said the women’s facility procurement is underway and urged continued legislative attention to pay‑equity, treatment capacity and reentry supports to reduce the department’s reliance on county jails and deferred admissions.