North Dakota
North Dakota bill requiring inmates to serve 85% of prison time draws heated, lengthy debate
BISMARCK — A North Dakota bill that would ensure defendants serve at least 85% of their sentences drew hours of impassioned testimony and debate over whether it would deter crime and promote public safety or simply crowd prisons at a high cost.
Over the course of several hours, the North Dakota Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony Tuesday, Jan. 21, and Wednesday for and against
Senate Bill 2128.
Attorney General Drew Wrigley
proposed the legislation,
which would require offenders to serve 85% of their sentence before they qualify for release, also known as “truth in sentencing.”
It also would ensure sentences for resisting arrest, simple assault on a peace officer and fleeing are served on top of other crimes. The minimum sentence for resisting arrest would be 14 days in jail, while assault and fleeing would get at least 30 days.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
The bill is Wrigley’s
second attempt in as many legislative sessions
to set minimum sentences. Language has been cut back from the bill in 2023, which went through a whirlwind of changes before its ultimate defeat.
The main difference is the 85% rule, which Wrigley said would create across-the-board reform.
“Senate Bill 2128 offers you the opportunity to right this wrong, which has evolved over years, and to bring truth to sentencing transparency,” he said.
Testimony got lengthy and heated, mostly on Wednesday when opponents of the bill spoke. Studies suggest minimum and truth in sentencing laws do little to reduce crime.
“It’s just a failed policy,” said Travis Finck, executive director for the North Dakota Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigents.
It’s unclear how much the bill will cost, as amendments are expected to reduce initial estimates.
The bill would eliminate parole eligibility for every North Dakota prisoner, said North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Colby Braun. Only those who do not get early release for good behavior and exceed 85% would qualify, he said.
“It ignores research and places the fiscal burden on taxpayers by focusing solely on prison capacity while eliminating reentry opportunities for most adults in custody,” Braun said.
Time not served behind bars
Crime has increased over the years, Wrigley said in arguing that his bill would hold those who confront law enforcement accountable. Fleeing, resisting and assault on officers often is served concurrently with other offenses, he said.
“It is a freebie, and it is a slap in the face to every man and woman who wears a uniform in this state that has watched misconduct toward them increase over the last decade or more,” Wrigley said. “All our legislation asks is for that to not be a freebie.”
The North Dakota Chiefs of Police Association and North Dakota Peace Officers Association supported the bill.
Bismarck Police Deputy Chief Jason Stugelmeyer said he has noticed a dramatic increase in officer assaults since 2020. He said the streets are more violent than when he started policing 24 years ago because people are not afraid to confront officers.
Darren Gibbins / The Bismarck Tribune
“Thank God, it’s not serious most of the time, but it’s crazy,” he said. “I sometimes hear we can’t arrest our way out of it, and maybe some of that is true, but we need a deterrent.”
Fleeing law enforcement also has increased significantly, Stugelmeyer said.
Finck noted Bismarck has a limited chase policy. Defendants know if they flee at a high rate of speed, police will terminate the chase in some instances, he said.
That suggests suspects flee because they think they will not get caught, not because they know they will not be punished.
The public thinks there is “truth in sentencing,” but defendants are serving a fraction of their punishments behind bars, Wrigley said.
“There is precious little predictability,” he said. “Forget about truth in sentencing.”
Truth in sentencing is needed to ensure punishments are being served, Assistant Burleigh County State’s Attorney Dennis Ingold said. Among several examples, he noted that a defendant he prosecuted got a two-year sentence for bringing drugs from Michigan to North Dakota.
The defendant only served 55 days behind bars, Ingold said. That included 20 days in jail the defendant served while awaiting sentencing, the prosecutor said. The defendant spent 35 days in prison before being moved to a halfway house, Ingold noted.
Brad Nygaard / The Bismarck Tribune
“If you look at true days served, that’s 7.5%,” Ingold said.
The DOCR would count the amount of time served as 50%, since he served six months in the halfway house plus early release time for good behavior, Ingold said.
“I know the argument is going to be that these are outliers, but these are real cases,” he said.
Data from the DOCR suggests the average time an inmate serves at one of its facilities is 50%, but that includes prison and transitional centers.
Early releases happen because North Dakota does not have a minimum standard for how much time must be spent behind bars, Ingold said.
“From a prosecutor’s perspective, we are using up a lot of resources prosecuting people who are still subject to DOCR sentences at the time that we encounter them,” he said.
Transitional facilities are used to integrate inmates back into society before fully being released from custody. People can leave for several hours, but they have to come back to custody, Finck said.
Inmates at the Bismarck Transition Center have to have a job, Administrator Kevin Arthaud said. About 100 people at the facility are inmates, while roughly 20 are on parole, he said.
“We are trying to make people ready for release,” he said.
There is structure at the facility with few walk-aways, or escapes, Arthaud said. SB 2128 would eliminate opportunities for inmates to use the center to prepare for society, he said. That means the facility likely would shut down, and local businesses who employ center inmates would lose those workers, he said.
Minimum mandatory sentencing laws do not reduce crime or recidivism, said Andrew Myer, a criminal justice professor at the University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute.
“For deterrence to work, we need three things to happen,” he said. “We need certainty, which means that the person will be arrested or caught for their crimes, we need celerity, that the punishment will happen quickly, and we need severity, that the punishment is at an appropriate level.”
He said minimum sentencing laws are costly and impact prison safety. Studies show that individuals serving time with minimum mandatory punishments have more disciplinary infractions in prisons, Myer said.
Minimum sentencing laws also can lead to overcrowding, which can put inmates and correctional workers in danger, he said. State prisons and local jails have been
pushed to their capacity limits,
and opponents of SB 2128 said the proposed legislation would create more inmates, as well as force them to stay longer.
Multiple groups, including out-of-state organizations, testified against the bill. That included the North Dakota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Prison Fellowship from Lansdowne, Virginia, and the Due Process Institute of Washington, D.C. Several cited increased costs to both the prison and judicial systems.
“What about the cost to the public?” said Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, adding she is concerned about the safety of her constituents.
Transitional and treatment centers have helped give felons second chances and opportunities to reinvent themselves, F5 Project CEO and founder Adam Martin said. He himself benefited from such programs when he was convicted of crimes.
“Based on the philosophy of truth in sentencing, I should have never gotten it,” he said, adding he would have served lengthy prison sentences.
Anna Paige / The Forum
Instead, he has never been to prison. He started an organization that helps people who struggle with incarceration, and Martin ultimately
was pardoned of his crimes in North Dakota.
The F5 Project has helped more than 40,000 people, he said.
Had he gone to prison, he believes he would not have gotten those opportunities, Martin said. Blanketing sentences will not benefit anyone, he said.
“I do believe what the speaker earlier said about mercy and grace. It works,” Martin said.
Greg Power, fisheries division chief with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, shares information about the new 2026-2028 Fishing Guide and a few new regulations starting April 1, 2026.
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SIOUX FALLS — Ali Stephens had 17 points and 13 rebounds and 8th-seeded Omaha defeated 9th-seeded North Dakota 49-39 in the first round of the Summit League women’s tournament.
The Fighting Hawks had a tough time putting the ball in the hoop all night long, scoring just three points in the first quarter and having only marginally better luck from there.
UND (7-24) shot just 23.5 percent from the floor (12-for-51) and made 1-of-20 shots from outside the arc. Walker Demers and Mackenzie Hughes had 10 points each to lead the Hawks, with Demers adding eight rebounds.
Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live
Regan Juenemann had 10 points and five rebounds for the Mavericks while Avril Smith had seven points and 16 rebounds and Sarai Estupinan eight points, five assists and three rebounds. Omaha (6-26) shot the ball slightly better than the Hawks, going 16-of-53 from the field (30 percent) and 8-of-23 (35 percent) on 3-pointers.
With the win, the Mavs earn a date with top-seed North Dakota State on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
The Bison won both regular season matchups by more than 50 points.
Matt Zimmer/Sioux Falls Live
Oral Roberts 84, Kansas City 62 — Don’t look now but the team that started the conference season 0-10 and at one point lost 15 of 16 games might be the hottest in the Summit League.
Oral Roberts picked up their fourth straight victory on Wednesday night in the conference tournament opener, routing Kansas City at the Premier Center in the 8/9 “play-in” game.
Ty Harper had 22 points to lead the Golden Eagles (10-22), who took a 44-21 lead by halftime and never looked back. ORU shot 50 percent from the floor and made 13-of-27 3-pointers while the Kangaroos shot just 34 percent and made 6-of-24 from deep. Martins Kilups had 17 points for the Eagles and Connor Dow added 14.
Jayson Petty had 14 points to lead the Kagaroos, who finish the season 4-27. It was their final game under coach Marvin Menzies, whom the school announced earlier this season would not return next year.
With the win ORU advances to face top-seed North Dakota State on Thursday at 6 p.m.
The Golden Eagles lost to NDSU 86-58 in Tulsa on Jan. 24 but they took the Bison to overtime in Fargo on Jan. 3 in a 79-77 loss.
Matt Zimmer is a Sioux Falls native and longtime sports writer. He graduated from Washington High School where he played football, legion baseball and developed his lifelong love of the Minnesota Twins and Vikings. After graduating from St. Cloud State University, he returned to Sioux Falls, and began a long career in amateur baseball and sports reporting. Email Matt at mzimmer@siouxfallslive.com.
North Dakota
The North Dakota Attorney General issued an opinion to the ND State Auditor – North Dakota Attorney General
04 Mar The North Dakota Attorney General issued an opinion to the ND State Auditor
in Opinions
March 4, 2026
Media Contact: Suzie Weigel, 701.328.2210
BISMARCK, ND – It is the opinion that federal law does not prevent the state from auditing P&A and even though P&A possesses confidential records, N.D.C.C. § 54-10-22.1 and 42 C.F.R. § 51.45(c) authorize the state auditor and the employees of the auditor’s office, to review the records without detriment to P &A.
Also, whether Rule 1.6 of the North Dakota Rules of Professional Conduct for licensed attorneys prohibits P&A from disclosing to the State Auditor the contents of a client file for the purpose of conducting a non-financial performance audit under N.D.C.C. ch. 54-10 when the requested file includes information about individuals and businesses in the private sector who chose to contact P &A.
This issue was already addressed in a 1995 opinion of this office regarding P&A. The 1995 opinion highlighted that P&A has authority to contract with private attorneys to represent private individuals. 17 During that performance audit, auditors asked to see billings from the contracted attorneys. 18 P&A redacted the names of the individuals represented by the contract attorneys under the rules for attorney-client privilege or attorney-client confidentiality. 19 The names of individuals seeking services of P&A are protected under N.D.C.C. § 25-01.3. The opinion stated:
Thus, P&A’s records which indicate to whom its services were provided are available to the State Auditor for performance audit purposes. The State Auditor has
been given access by P&A to its records other than the attorney’s billings. Therefore, the State Auditor already has access to the names of the persons to whom P&A
provides services. State law requires that the State Auditor and his employees must keep such information confidential.
Here, P&A has not identified a specific record. Given that, I rely on the past opinions declaring that records made confidential by N.D.C.C. § 25-01.3-10 are available under N.D.C.C. § 54-10-22 to the State Auditor and the Auditor’s employees for audit purposes.
Link to opinion 2026-L-01
###
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