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MINOT, N.D. \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
It’s not.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 2107<\/a><\/p>\n , 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.<\/p>\n North Dakota <\/p>\n already has some minimum sentencing requirements in the law<\/a><\/p>\n , as well as a requirement for judges to report any deviations from them. You can <\/p>\n look the reports up on the court system website<\/a><\/p>\n . There hasn’t been a deviation since 2017 when there were just two in the entire state.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n It would cost nearly $30 million through the 2025-27 biennium <\/p>\n per<\/a><\/p>\n the state Department of Corrections.<\/a><\/p>\n That money could be better spent elsewhere in our criminal justice system. Wrigley knows it, because he’s asking for that spending too.<\/p>\n The budget for his office he submitted to lawmakers calls for <\/p>\n a 29%<\/a><\/p>\n , or $24.6 million, increase. <\/p>\n He wants more space, more equipment, and 26 new employees for the state’s beleaguered crime lab, which <\/p>\n can no longer do basic forensics such as firearm and latent fingerprint testing<\/a><\/p>\n . Wrigley wants more Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents to <\/p>\n help fill the gaps<\/a><\/p>\n in drug trafficking enforcement, <\/p>\n