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Counties report roughly $1M shortfall for 24/7 sobriety monitoring after waived fees
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Summary
The North Dakota Association of Counties presented survey data showing county costs to operate the 24/7 sobriety program exceed participant fee revenues by about $1 million among responding counties; five counties reported fee waivers in 2025 (37 cases), shifting costs to local budgets and prompting committee discussion of fee structure, indigent funds or prohibiting waivers.
County officials told the Judiciary Interim Committee on April 1 that operations for the 24/7 sobriety program create a budget pressure for sheriffs' offices when judges waive participant fees.
Danelle Preske of the North Dakota Association of Counties presented a survey of 53 counties (27 responded, including 8 of the 10 largest counties). Respondents reported an average monthly participant count of 925; the Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation reported 4,446 participants statewide in 2024, averaging about 370 per month statewide. Preske said monitoring options (twice-daily breath testing, remote breath testing, scram bracelets, drug patches) have varying costs and that under current arrangements counties collectively face an estimated shortfall of roughly $1,000,000 because fee revenues do not cover personnel and equipment expenses. She estimated salary costs to counties for administering the program at about $2.3 million.
Preske told members five counties indicated judges had waived fees in 2025 (Burleigh, Cass, Richland, Sheridan and Stark) with 37 cases total; Stark County accounted for 32 of those reported waivers. Counties lack a statewide indigent fund to absorb waived fees, and when a court waives fees the county or taxpayers carry the cost, Preske said. She recommended the committee explore adjusting the fee structure, prohibiting waivers, or creating an indigent fund (other states have used new dedicated taxes to fund indigent fee pools). County associations favored legislation prohibiting waiver of fees and/or creating an indemnity fund to protect local budgets.
Deputy Jennifer Heinert of Burleigh County described operational choices: Burleigh typically starts participants on twice-daily breath testing (which is relatively inexpensive), moves some to scram bracelets or remote breath devices later, and works with participants who fall behind on payments. Heinert said Burleigh rarely waives scram or patch fees because those devices cost substantially more.
Public defenders, indigence counsel and a private litigator raised constitutional and due-process concerns about charging pretrial monitoring fees when defendants remain presumed innocent. Travis Fink (Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigence) noted Attorney General guidance that 24/7 fees are typically assessed pretrial and warned the committee to consider challenges that have arisen elsewhere; the Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigence advised careful statutory design if fees remain.
Members discussed tradeoffs: counties prefer no fee waivers because local budgets are strained, but some argued that fee waivers may be necessary to avoid jailing people who cannot pay. Several lawmakers suggested creating a state-level indigent fund or shifting equipment costs away from counties so fees (if assessed) do not fall on taxpayers when waived. The committee asked Legislative Council and county partners to gather more complete financial returns from non-responding counties and to prepare options for legislative consideration.
