North Dakota
North Dakota bill would allow children to live with mothers in prisons
BISMARCK — A North Dakota bill could allow children to temporarily live with their mothers in prison.
The North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has requested legislation that would let children reside at the Heart River Correctional Center in Mandan with their mothers.
Senate Bill 2115
would let the DOCR hire staff and develop policy to achieve that goal.
The bill also would prevent the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and its staff from being held liable for any injuries to the children unless “the injury is affirmatively caused by the negligent act of a state employee.”
Mothers would be responsible for their children, including medical expenses, DOCR Director Colby Braun told The Forum. Medical care would have to be sought outside the facility, he said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to work on the bill — a hearing for SB 2115 is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 15.
The legislation is focused on mothers who come to Heart River while pregnant, Braun said. If a woman births her child while in custody, SB 2115 would allow the mother and baby to stay together for some time after birth, he said, adding that doing so provides better outcomes for families.
“What we’re trying to do is really support the goal of … making sure that we’re keeping good contact with mom and their children prior to them leaving prison,” he said.
The bill doesn’t limit the age of a child who could live with their mother in prison. That could allow children to spend time with their mothers over a short time period, such as a weekend, shortly before a woman is released from prison, Braun said.
The legislation would give children the opportunity to reconnect with mothers as they prepare to leave prison and return to their families, he said.
The bill doesn’t say how long a child could live in the prison. It’s unclear how much the change could cost the state, according to a fiscal note attached to the bill.
The DOCR is still working on the policy that would detail the logistics of allowing children to live in Heart River. For now, the bill only addresses liability and creates the authority to allow mothers to have their children with them in the prison.
Parental separation impacts
Parental separation due to incarceration can have extreme effects on children, said Wanda Bertram, communication strategist for the
Prison Policy Initiative.
That includes lower educational performance in school, a higher likelihood that children end up in the foster care system and termination of parental rights, the nonprofit said.
“This is all documented to lead to a host of different negative factors in the child’s life,” Bertram told The Forum. “So, anything that can be done to mitigate that is a step in the right direction.”
The nonprofit that researches criminal justice reform has advocated for releasing incarcerated parents of young children, Bertram said. At least a dozen states have made laws addressing family separation.
Sometimes called a nursery prison program, a small number of states allow children to temporarily live with their mothers in prisons.
South Dakota
allows incarcerated mothers to bond with their children for 30 months after the child’s birth.
Some states and the federal government have proximity laws, which set a maximum distance between the facility where a parent is incarcerated and where their children live.
Minnesota
allows mothers who have been sentenced to prison to live at home with their children for up to a year after birth.
The DOCR hasn’t discussed releasing mothers from custody so they could care for children outside of prisons, Braun said.
States have been slow to adopt a program like North Dakota could because they don’t have the facilities to do so, Bertram said.
“Something like a prison nursery program involves a lot of investment in new infrastructure,” she said, noting increasing funds for the prison system can move slowly.
States also typically incarcerate a small number of women, she said. Of the 2,033 inmates who are incarcerated in North Dakota, 260, or 13%, are women, according to data from the DOCR.
“When you’re talking about programs that involve building new infrastructure or allocating resources to new programs, and something that’s going to impact a quite small number of people, it’s understandable why movement on that would be slow,” Bertram said.
Allowing incarcerated mothers to keep their babies with them in North Dakota has been a topic of discussion for “a long time,” Braun said. North Dakota previously didn’t have the space to do it, he said.
“As we’re looking at a new women’s facility, … one of the goals that we had is being able to have a unit where mom and baby could be together,” he said.
Heart River and the Dakota Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Center in New England are North Dakota’s only female prisons. Until recently, the New England facility was the state’s only prison for women.
North Dakota plans to
build a 260-bed women’s prison at Heart River
to replace the New England facility. The $161.2 million project was approved in 2023 and is expected to take three years to complete.
North Dakota
The Democratic Spirit: Reflections on North Dakota History and the Declaration of Independence at 250 – America250
A state and national public forum comprising a lecture, and then a question-answer session. Kwame Anthony Appiah’s lecture commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and explore its enduring significance in American life. Appiah’s scholarship on ethics, identity, and cosmopolitanism offers a unique lens for examining democratic ideals in a diverse society. By connecting these themes to North Dakota’s historical narrative, the forum fosters civic engagement, intellectual discourse, and cultural understanding within our community.
FARGO — Drivers can expect to see a slight uptick in gas prices as a result of the Iran conflict.
As of Monday, March 2, the average for North Dakota is $2.65 a gallon. While that is a $0.13 increase from a month ago, it is significantly lower than prices a year ago.
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GRAND FORKS – The Study ND, formerly Humanities North Dakota, has received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for a statewide theater and humanities initiative in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This commemorative investment is meant to bring historical events and figures – such as the framers of the U.S. Constitution – to life through virtual and live performances that celebrate the nation’s history.
The grant, along with funding from private sources, has made it possible for The Study ND to host “America 250” activities after the organization sustained a considerable cut in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year, according to Brenna Gerhardt, The Study ND executive director.
“We absorbed a 50% budget cut, resulting in a loss of $467,645 in funding,” Gerhardt said. “As a result, we had to significantly scale back our American 250 initiatives focused on American history and civics education.”
Funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts will be used to present public readings, theatrical portrayals and guided discussions to encourage audience members to reflect on the nation’s founding in 1776 and on its democratic ideals, while engaging in contemporary conversations about civic life.
All of the programming in the series organized by The Study ND, titled “American Heroes,” will be livestreamed statewide.
In the grant application submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, “we framed the project around a simple idea: democracy requires more than information, it requires citizens who can think historically, listen well, and argue in good faith,” Gerhardt said.
“This series uses living history performances to bring consequential figures into the room, then turns the room into a civic space through moderated dialogue and related public events. We define ‘heroism’ as civic courage under pressure, the willingness to contend with hard truths, and the capacity to enlarge a community’s moral imagination,” she said.
“The project does not ask audiences to agree on a single interpretation of a figure. It invites them to grapple with complexity together, and to connect the past to the responsibilities of the present.”
When Gerhardt and her colleagues received the application for grant proposals from the National Endowment for the Arts, “we were already planning a line-up of America 250 events and it fit perfectly with what we were already planning, so then we just wrote the grant,” she said.
Private funds, including matching funds from the Bismarck-based Tom and Frances Leach Foundation, have also been provided for this project.
Details about all the events will probably be posted on the website
www.TheStudyND.org
in March, Gerhardt said.
The America 250 events, which are planned to take place at Bismarck State College, are 5-6 p.m. July 8, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence, with John Adams,” and 6-7:30 p.m. July 9, “Alexander Hamilton Speaks,” both performed by William Chrystal.
The Living History programs are planned for 7-8:15 p.m. Sept. 17, “Thomas Paine,” performed by Doug Mishler, and Oct. 6, 7-8:15 p.m, “Frederick Douglass,” performed by Nathan Richardson. Both will be moderated by Susan Frontczak.
The performers Chrystal and Richardson live in Virginia, Frontczak in Colorado,and Mishler in Nevada.
Another program, “Hemingway and Gellhorn,” is set for Sept. 16-18 at Bismarck State College, Gerhardt said. “It is part of our broader Chautauqua/living history programming connected to America 250 … (and) will feature performances and discussion centered on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, using their lives and writing as a way to explore major questions about American identity, war reporting, public memory, and the stories we tell about freedom, conflict and responsibility.
“What I am excited about with this event is that it gives us a way to approach America 250 beyond founding-era material. In other words, it helps us show the American story is not just about 1776, but also about the generations that followed and how Americans wrestled with democracy, power, truth and moral courage.”
This program “expands the initiative beyond commemoration into reflection, dialogue and interpretation, which is where the humanities are especially valuable,” she said. “It helps us reach audiences who may be drawn in through literature, journalism and performance, not only traditional history events.”
The Hemingway and Gellhorn program fits in with America 250 in that “it broadens the frame and adds depth to the larger effort.”
Gerhardt is hoping that these activities will give participants “a better understanding of all the debates and issues going on when our country was founded, and how those debates are continuing today,” she said, “and just to be more thoughtful and informed citizens.”
College students and members of the general public will also be invited to participate in a workshop aimed at teaching participants how to build a living history performance from primary sources and historical research.
Last year, The Study ND lost a substantial amount of funding – nearly $468,000, about half of its annual budget – from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its fiscal 2025 year.
The loss of that much funding was discouraging, Gerhardt said. “Very much so, because we had a lot of activities planned for America 250 and we had to cancel a lot of them, or – like in this case – seek other funding, which we were lucky to get.”
The Study ND currently has four full-time employees, she said. “We eliminated a part-time marketing position after the cuts.”
A nonprofit organization, The Study ND provides civics, arts and cultural education programming. The organization’s programs – which include online classes, book talks, lectures and more – reached about 24,000 people in 2024, Gerhardt told the North Dakota Monitor in April 2025.
During the summer, the organization hosts a civics education program for high school and middle school social studies teachers, she said.
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