North Dakota Attorney General Calls for More Prison Time

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)

(By: Jeff Beach. North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota’s attorney general is backing a bill that will increase the time offenders spend behind bars because he says the state criminal justice system is releasing prisoners too quickly.

The head of the state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says the bill would deny prisoners access to treatment and education and lead to more repeat offenders. He argued spending more money on law enforcement would be a better use of taxes than locking up prisoners for longer periods of time when the state’s jails and prisons are already overcrowded.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley is pushing Senate Bill 2128, which he calls the truth-in-sentencing bill, as a way to reduce crime. The Senate passed the bill 28-18 despite a do-not-pass recommendation from the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The bill has a fiscal note that estimates the bill will cost the state $22.7 million in the 2025-27 biennium and $21.3 million for the following two years