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 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.

BISMARCK — Lawmakers unanimously advanced a bill aimed at replacing over 300 Chinese-made drones used by North Dakota agencies due to security concerns, though development of drone infrastructure in the bill drew scrutiny from lawmakers.

House Bill 1038

would create a $15 million program to replace all drones used by North Dakota agencies that do not comply with the

National Defense Authorization Act

and the

American Security Drone Act of 2023.

In short, any drones that are manufactured in adversarial countries would be replaced.

For North Dakota, that would be 307 of the 353 drones — or 86.97% — used by state agencies, according to a survey administered by the North Dakota University System.

All 307 drones that would be replaced are from China, according to the survey, specifically from a company called DJI, according to bill sponsor Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck.

During his testimony to the appropriations committee, Nathe said that DJI has roughly 90% of the hobby market, 70% of the industrial market and 80% of the first responder market in the U.S., something he said was “very disturbing” to him.

“Even if out of the 307 we have one of these that are bad, it’s worth doing,” Nathe said. “So, these drones are flying all over our state. They’re flying over our communities, our air bases, our missile sites, our oil fields and God knows if they’re collecting data and transmitting that. And that is not only a security risk for North Dakota but also for the country.”

Nathe said North Dakota agencies are using Chinese drones because they are cheap.

“Why do we have so many of these in our inventory? And we’re not the only state, every other state is – has as many of these as we do,” Nathe said. “And the answer is they’re cheap. Cheaper than U.S. stuff, and they’re easy to fly and they’re very consumer-friendly. And they are not just years ahead, they’re like generations ahead of the (U.S.) manufacturers.”

Despite this, he said he has not had any pushback from state agencies on the proposed bill.

The program would be run by the Grand Forks-based

Northern Plains Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Test Site

. Under the proposed bill, the test site would find and pay for drones that could serve the same function of the Chinese drones currently used by agencies, then organize training on the new drones for agencies’ personnel and inspect and dispose of the Chinese-made drones.

Agencies would be able to continue using the drones they have until a replacement drone from a U.S. manufacturer or a manufacturer in a country friendly to the U.S. has been found by the test site, Nathe said.

Some members of the committee questioned how much it would cost to replace the current drones. Frank Mattis, director of UAS integration at Thales and newly minted chair of the

North Dakota UAS Council

, said that it would likely cost more than $10,000 per drone to replace the current DJI drones used by state agencies.

Thales is a company partnered with the state and the Northern Plains UAS Test Site to develop the

Vantis

system. The system, simply put, is a radar system that tracks and identifies drones, which allows them to operate beyond the line of sight of pilots.

The second part of HB 1038 would allocate $11 million to develop an FAA radar data enclave and engage in a first-of-its-kind one-year pathfinder program where the FAA would share radar data with Vantis that would extend the system’s reach over most of the state.

Northern Plains UAS Test Site Deputy Executive Director Erin Roesler said the system covers 3,000 square miles and with the FAA data would cover 56,000 square miles — an expansion that would cost the state $255 million to develop without the FAA’s assistance.

The hope, according to those in support of the bill, is that Vantis with the FAA’s data would become the guideline for a national drone infrastructure system.

According to Mattis, this would be the first time the FAA shared unfiltered radar data with an organization outside of the federal government.

The data is not classified as “top secret” or “secret,” Mattis said, but it does rise to a level of importance where it needs to be protected. The $11 million would pay for the training, screening of personnel, and physical and cybersecurity upgrades to the test site that would allow them to house and utilize the data.

Several lawmakers on the committee questioned how and when the state would see a return on the $11 million investment in Vantis.

Roesler said that Vantis should be viewed as an infrastructure project and that its value comes from the opportunities it will create.

She said that state agencies and other drone operators must create their own often costly and redundant systems to operate drones the way Vantis allows for. Creating this shared-use infrastructure lowers the barrier for agencies and companies to use drones in new ways.

Rep. David Richter, R-Williston, told a story about a hospital in his part of the state using a drone to deliver medicine across Lake Sakakawea to a remote area as an example of the use of drone infrastructure.

“We build highways and then people use them,” Richter said. “We are building a highway and people will use it.”

The bill was given a unanimous “do pass” recommendation by the committee and will be carried to the floor for a vote by Nathe.

Agristo, a leading European producer of frozen potato products, is making big moves in North America. The company, founded in 1986, has chosen Grand Forks, North Dakota, as the site for its first U.S. production facility.

Agristo has been testing potato farming across the U.S. for years and found North Dakota to be the perfect fit. The state offers high-quality potato crops and a strong agricultural community.

In a statement, Agristo said it believes those factors make it an ideal location for producing the company’s high-quality frozen potato products, including fries, hash browns, and more.

“Seeing strong potential in both potato supply and market growth in North America, Agristo is now ready to invest in its first production facility in the United States, focusing on high-quality products, innovation, and state-of-the-art technology.”

Agristo plans to invest up to $450 million to build a cutting-edge facility in Grand Forks. This project will create 300 to 350 direct jobs, giving a boost to the local economy.

Agristo is working closely with North Dakota officials to finalize the details of the project.

Negotiations for the plant are expected to wrap up by mid-2025.

For more information about Agristo and its products, visit www.agristo.com.

Agristo’s headquarters are located in Belgium.