North Dakota Corrections Working to Relieve Crowding

Missouri River Correctional Center in Bismarck. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – The North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is working to add as many as 300 additional beds to its overburdened prison system over the next year.

“We’re literally trying to lift up about, as far as I’m concerned, four mini prisons across the state all in the same year,” Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Colby Braun told lawmakers at a committee meeting last month.

The state prison system has had a population more than 200 inmates over capacity on average during the past roughly two years. It was 193 male inmates over capacity on average between July 2023 and May 2025, according to data presented at the meeting. The system averaged 31 female inmates over capacity during that same time frame, the data show.

The Legislature this year approved more than $37 million for the 2025-2027 budget cycle to provide immediate relief to prison overcrowding, including by building temporary shelters and  contracting space from jails. The money will also go toward a new reentry facility in northwest North Dakota.