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7
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SMALL TOWN PAPERS
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From left, Golden Valley County Road Foreman Pete Wirtzfeld, Sheriff Scott Steele and resident
Gene Hamilton, listen to the discussion at the August Golden Valley County Commission meeting.
(Photo by Richard Volesky)
li
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r .
By Richard Volesky deputies have also resigned, at the end of August. Resumes could
Editor/Reporter Steele told commissioners that he then be reviewed at the commission's
The Golden Valley County Corn-has been working on advertising the September meeting.
mission at its August meeting was up, positions. He suggested that acom- Regarding his position, Steele said
dated regarding the staffing plans for mitteebe formed - to include one of he had no recommendation for re-
the county's sheriffs department, the commissioners - to keep the flow placement for the commissioners.
Sheriff Scott Steele submitted his of information going between com- Commissioners also discussed
iresignation to the county on July 9, mission meetings. The committee'idea what would be the term of the ap-
with the resignation to be effective on didn't receive discussion and wasn't pointee. The appointment would be
July 31. He later rescinded that date, approved, for the remainder of Steele's term, ~d
leaving the effective date open ended Commission Chairman Harley the appointee would have to run for
so as to give commissioners more time Steffen suggested statewide advertis- election in 2020 to continue in office,
to find a replacement. Two of his ing with a call for applications to end said State's Attorney Christina Wenko.
Management of criminals undergoing ;hilt
Editor's note: This is the third
story in a series sponsored by the Where parolees went in 2018
North Dakota Newspaper Associa- The map shows the number of parolees discharged to each
tion and the Grand Forks Herald.
which aims to answer questions at zip code in 2018. The map's darkest color indicates 30 or
t~e difficult intersection between more parolees.
budget crunches, criminal justice
N
and the well-being of North
Dakota's communities.
By Sam Easter
N.D. Newspaper Association
BISMARCK - Pat Bohn has spent
a long time working in corrections
-- long enough to climb from a rank-
d-file parole and probation officer
ifi the 1990s to a job heading North
Dakota's entire parole and probation
operation today. He's seen a lot of
things change.
Chief among them is a philosoph-
ical shift in how North Dakota treats
its criminals. Gone are the highly
punitive, tough-on-crime ideas of the
t990s. Now, state leaders -- from
the Legislature to the front offices at
the State Penitentiary have come
]o embrace ideas they argue help
criminals become better neighbors
and citizens.
Average parole time that's the
time spent finishing a sentence in the
outside world is going up in North
Dakota, both as a result of legal
changes and the Parole Board in-
creasingly letting prisoners out ear-
lier. State legislators, faced with
growing prison populations, are de-
creasing criminal penalties and mak-
ing it easier for offenders to find
themselves on probation instead of in
a cell.
Bismarck" "Fargo'
0 2 4 6 8 10 1-214 1.61 820 22 24 26 28 30
Note: Only shows parolees discharged by DOCR in North Dakota. Some
parolees with PO Box addresses not shown. Some trans-boundary z!p
codes not in chart.
Source: North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
state's resources is one of the most
important dynamics behind recent
reforms. HB 1216, submitted to the
Legislature during this year's session
Bohn's work is right where those would have required a prosecutor to
ideas meet the rest of the world, estimate the cost of the sentences
"You listen to people, right? And they recommend for criminals sent to
they think, 'You do the crime, you do North Dakota prisons. It was with-
the time,' type of analogy," he said. drawn before a vote.
,' rhat's where-the disconnect is at. The state has acknowledged
And I think that's where the tough struggling to keep up with the de-
work is ours is not about being mands of its criminal population.
harsh or lenient. Ours is about being The DOCR's 2013-2015 biennial re-
reasoned toward finding a balance of port, describing parole and proba-
accountability and behaviorchange, tion, notes that "the number of
And that doesn't always mesh within offenders under supervision has
our culture and what people want to surged and caused many challenges
see on the front page of the paper." for the division. Parole officer case-
Bohn is doing the work that the loads have risen to more than 130 of-
state has tasked him with. But for fenders in some areas, and staff has
some observers, what the state is struggled to keep up with the work-
doing amounts to shifting a problem, load increases." That problem has
raising questions about the wisdom lessened, but it hasn't gone away.
behind -- or at least, the dollars The 2015-17 biennial report still
committed to -- the criminal justice calls the number "higher than would
reforms, be optimal," at about 75 parolees and
For some, the effect of all these probationers per supervisor, though
policy and attitude changes is taking "significantly lower." The report for
the problem of prison crowding and the 2017-2019 biennium had yet to
making it an issue of probation and be released as of this report.
parole overload. -- to the public's State employment data helps shed
detriment, light on how the corrections depart-
"It's absolutely a pul lic safety ment has managed these changes. In
risk," Grand Forks County State's April 2013, the department's Parole
Attorney Haley Wamstad said. and Probation Division employed 63
"When these folks are returning from parole and probation officers, one of
incarceration, that's probably when which worked part-time. By Decem-
they're at the highest risk of reof- ber 2018, that number had risen more
fending and posing a risk to the pub- than 30%, to 82, all full-time. Total
lic. When a judge places somebody corrections agents, another group
on supervised probation, or places that supervises offenders on release,
somebody in the North Dakota peni- ticked up from 19 to 21. A depart-
tentiary, the judge does not do so ment spokesperson said that April
lightly. These are folks who need su- 2013 are the earliest available
pervision. They need monitoring in records that describe the division's
order to keep our streets safe and employment composition in such de-
these people from reoffending."
Exactly what a parole and proba- . Shift
tion officer's experience is like, (Continued on Page 6)
though, is hard to say. In researching
this series, the Grand Forks Herald
and North Dakota Newspaper Asso-
ciation reached out to dozens of
sources, including state!s attorneys,
law enforcement, legislators and the
highest-ranking members of the
state's prison system. A reporter and
photographer toured two prisons. A
reporter read hundreds of pages of
state documents.
At no point was a reporter granted
the chance to speak with a rank-and-
file parole and probation officer. A
prison system spokesperson would
not clarify the reason why despite re-
peated questioning.
Behind these changes are also
questions about the resources states
like North Dakota have to house pris-
oners. According to a state correc-
tions spokesperson, the cost of
incarceration is about $43,000 per in-
mate per year. The equivalent cost of
a parolee is about $1,700.
This has grown more relevant as
the cost of running North Dakota's
correctional system has skyrocketed.
In inflation-adjusted dollars, the de-
partment expended about $120 mil-
lion in the 1999-2001 biennium,
according to state documents. But by
the 2015-2017 biennium, it was
spending $232 million -- nearly
double, after spending even more in
the previous biennium. The depart-
ment has added the equivalent of
more than 260 full-time positions
during the same period.
That's because, by almost any
measure, the job the state Depart-
ment of Corrections and Rehabilita-
tion has to do has grown
precipitously in recent years. Its total
number of adult inmates grew from
fewer than 1,000 at the end of 1999
to an annual average of 1,761 in late
2016. The same explosive growth
was happening in the parole and pro-
bation populations, too.
But this kind of steady growth has
come as North Dakota's financial re-
sources have ebbed and fowed. The
state's tax and fee revenues peaked
in the 2013-2015 biennium; general
fund revenues still haven't recov-
ered.
The tension between the prison
system's explosive growth and the
Riders make their way down a hill of the Bar X Ranch near Medora earlier this month during
filming for 'Best of America by Horseback' for RFD-TV. (Photo by Richard Volesky)
h
trail riding
By Richard Volesky Horseback," which airs on RFD-TV. potential new tourists.
Editor/Reporter Host Tom Seay and his wife, Pat, travel "This is one of the prettiest places
MEDORA - A group of about 50 across the country and showcase trail they (the riders) can go in the area,"
horseback and mule riders and a cou- riding locations and the interesting said Tom Seay.
pie from a television show were in the people they meet along the way. The The Aug. 3 ride at the Medora
Badlands earlier this month to film an show from Doug and Julie Tescher's ranch lasted about two hours. Riders
episode. Bar X Ranch at Medora is expected to were also part of a banquet that was
The riders were drawn by a call for air sometime in November, and it will held at the Medora Community Center
participants for "Best of America by likely provide additional exposure to. later that day.
Foundation organizing rehabilitation project
The Mule Deer Foundation is or- Bakken Classic Fishing Derby, a region.
ganizing a habitat rehabilitation charity tournament that raises In addition to the purchase of new
project in southwestern Northmoney for projects dedicated to equipment, the North Dakota Petro-
Dakota, and the North Dakota Pe- wildlife, conservation and access to leum Council and industry compa-
troleum Foundation, in cooperation the outdoors. This year, thefounda- nies, including Enbridge, Enerplus,
with industry companies, will pro- tion raised more than $20,000, with Equinor, MAP Mechanical, Midwest
vide funding and volunteer support, a portion of the proceeds going to Erosion Control and Marathon Oil
Marshall Johnson, the Mule Deer the Mule Deer Foundation for the will send volunteers, lend equipment
Foundation regional director is co- purchase of a wire. baler to roll and provide donations to help the
ordinating this project with local barbed wire. The baler will be used Mule Deer Foundation with the proj-
landowner Bill Lowman. during the industry workday to re- ect.
Each year, the North Dakota Pe- move old sheep fencing to help im- The work is scheduled to occur
troleum Foundation hosts the prove habitat for wildlife in the on Aug. 22.
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