February 11, 2025

cjstudents

News for criminal justice students

Mandatory minimum sentences are a distraction from our justice system’s real needs

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MINOT, N.D. — If you’re concerned about crime, and in some places you should be, then a bill before the Legislature in Bismarck to impose a new regime of mandatory minimum sentencing in our state’s criminal justice system may seem like a step in the right direction.

It’s not.

Senate Bill 2107

, introduced at the behest of Attorney General Drew Wrigley, would create a presumption of minimum sentences for various violent and drug-related crimes. Judges who stray from the minimum sentences must “justify the reason for a departure from the presumptive jail sentence within the judgment,” the bill states.

North Dakota

already has some minimum sentencing requirements in the law

, as well as a requirement for judges to report any deviations from them. You can

look the reports up on the court system website

. There hasn’t been a deviation since 2017 when there were just two in the entire state.

Wrigley’s bill also imposes a truth-in-sentencing policy. Convicts are often paroled well before their sentences are completed. For example, the minimum sentence for someone convicted of a fourth driving under the influence offense is a year and a day in prison. One state prosecutor told me those convicts are often paroled within 30 days.

If every convict had to serve even the majority of their sentences, our incarceration costs would explode. Wrigley’s bill requires that 85% of the minimum sentences it creates be served.

It would cost nearly $30 million through the 2025-27 biennium

per

the state Department of Corrections.

That money could be better spent elsewhere in our criminal justice system. Wrigley knows it, because he’s asking for that spending too.

The budget for his office he submitted to lawmakers calls for

a 29%

, or $24.6 million, increase.

He wants more space, more equipment, and 26 new employees for the state’s beleaguered crime lab, which

can no longer do basic forensics such as firearm and latent fingerprint testing

. Wrigley wants more Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents to

help fill the gaps

in drug trafficking enforcement,

especially around the Native American reservations

. He wants to enhance pay for the lawyers in his office so that he no longer loses them to other state agencies and the private sector.

These are reasonable asks. One thing we’ve learned about the Attorney General’s Office since Wrigley took over is that it’s been neglected. Wrigley is right to ask for more resources.

Outside of Wrigley’s office, we could also invest more money in indigent defense. Those offices are woefully understaffed and underfunded. Also, a North Dakotan must make less than about $17,000 per year, a level so low it leaves many who are facing serious criminal charges unable to afford a private lawyer but also not qualified for a public defender.

Remember, the goal of the criminal justice system is justice, not populating prisons.

Wrigley is asking this Legislature for a lot, and much of it is needed. It would be a terrible thing if his mandatory minimums proposal becomes a shiny object that distracts lawmakers from more pressing needs.



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