2014 North Dakota Century Code Title 54 State Government Chapter 54-23.3 Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
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CHAPTER 54-23.3
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND REHABILITATION
54-23.3-01. Department of corrections and rehabilitation - Creation - Duties Programs.
There is hereby created a department of corrections and rehabilitation that is responsible to
the governor. The department is responsible for the direction and general administrative
supervision, guidance, and planning of adult and juvenile correctional facilities and programs
within the state. The department includes a division of adult services, a division of juvenile
services, and such other divisions as are determined necessary for the effective and efficient
operation of the department. Programs and facilities included in the department are the North
Dakota state penitentiary or any of its affiliated facilities, parole and probation for adult
offenders, North Dakota youth correctional center, community programs and services for
juvenile offenders under the division of juvenile services, and any other programs developed by
the department.
54-23.3-01.1. Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
1. "Director" means the director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation. The
director may designate officers of the department to assist in carrying out the director's
duties.
2. "Inmate" means an offender who the district court has committed to the legal and
physical custody of the department of corrections and rehabilitation and who is
confined in the North Dakota state penitentiary or its affiliated facilities or is confined in
another state's correctional facility, a federal correctional facility, a county correctional
facility or regional corrections center, a private correctional facility, or has been placed
in a community placement program, treatment facility, or transitional center by the
department.
3. "Juvenile offender" means an offender who is supervised by an officer of the juvenile
court or has been adjudicated unruly or delinquent by the juvenile court and placed in
the custody of the division of juvenile services.
4. "Offender" means a person who has been committed to the legal and physical custody
of the department of corrections and rehabilitation, or placed under the supervision
and management of the department by a district court, by the parole board, or through
the interstate compact for the supervision of adult offenders.
5. "Parolee" means an offender who has been placed under the supervision and
management of the department of corrections and rehabilitation by the parole board or
through the interstate compact for the supervision of adult offenders.
6. "Probationer" means an offender who has been placed under the supervision and
management of the department of corrections and rehabilitation by a district court or
through the interstate compact for the supervision of adult offenders.
54-23.3-02. Purpose.
The purpose of the department of corrections and rehabilitation is:
1. To develop a statewide correctional philosophy that will provide direction, goals, and
standards for corrections.
2. To provide for the care, custody, discipline, training, and treatment of persons
committed to state correctional facilities and programs.
3. To coordinate and provide a continuum of correctional services to both adult and
juvenile clients.
4. To promote and develop close communication and mutual understanding of
corrections issues and concerns between the courts and the department.
5. To provide joint training of staff and career opportunities for corrections staff.
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6.
To work with local and state entities to develop alternatives to conventional
incarceration for those offenders who can be dealt with more effectively in less
restrictive, community-based facilities and programs.
54-23.3-03. Director - Appointment - Qualifications - Compensation.
The chief administrative officer of the department is the director of the department of
corrections and rehabilitation, who must be appointed by the governor. The position of director
is not a classified position and the director shall serve at the pleasure of the governor. The
person appointed as director must hold at least a bachelor's degree from an accredited college
or university and must have held a management position in correctional or related work for at
least five years. The governor shall set the salary of the director within the limits of legislative
appropriations.
54-23.3-04. Director - Powers and duties.
The director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation has the following powers
and duties:
1. To manage and control all institutions and programs within the department and to
administer and enforce the laws with which the department is charged.
2. To promote a unified criminal justice system and develop a statewide correctional
philosophy in cooperation with the courts, law enforcement, and other entities in the
criminal justice system.
3. To develop necessary programs and services for adult and juvenile offenders, within
legislative appropriations, to provide for their treatment and rehabilitation and to
recognize their special needs.
4. To develop, maintain, and revise as required a comprehensive master plan for the
state's correctional system which must indicate the system's needs and resources.
5. To establish policies and procedures necessary to carry out the responsibilities of the
department.
6. To organize the department into an adult services division, a juvenile services division,
and such other divisions that will enable it to function most effectively and efficiently.
7. To exercise general supervisory and appointing authority over all department
employees, subject to any applicable personnel laws and rules.
8. To employ and remove the director of the division of juvenile services, the director of
the division of adult services, and other division directors and personnel who may be
deemed necessary by the director of the department. Until the director of the
department of corrections and rehabilitation has been granted the full-time equivalent
positions within the department's budget for the division director positions, or when the
positions are vacant, the responsibilities of these positions must be assumed by the
director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation or by the director's
designee.
9. To delegate authority to subordinates as necessary and appropriate, clearly
delineating the delegated authority and limitations.
10. To promote the development of alternatives to conventional incarceration for those
offenders who can be dealt with more effectively in less restrictive, community-based
facilities and programs.
11. To contract for correctional services, and to provide such services, with the United
States, Canada, other states, and any of their governmental subdivisions and
agencies and with another agency or governmental unit in this state, or with any
private or public correctional or treatment facility or agency. The director shall
reimburse the entity at an amount based upon the services required for the housing
and treatment of inmates. The director may also contract to provide services, without
cost to the state, for persons held by any of the jurisdictions mentioned in this section.
If a treaty is in effect between the United States and a foreign country for the transfer
and exchange of offenders, the director of the department of corrections and
rehabilitation, upon recommendation of the warden and the approval of the governor,
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may on behalf of the state under the terms of the treaty transfer or exchange offenders
and take any action necessary for the state to participate in the treaty.
To lease land owned by the state under the jurisdiction of the department of
corrections and rehabilitation. A lease by the director is not subject to the conditions of
this subsection. The director may sell or exchange, with the governor's approval,
selected portions of land owned by the state under the jurisdiction of the department of
corrections and rehabilitation and may sell, trade, lease, or grant mining easements to
extract and remove any resources found on, in, or under said department of
corrections and rehabilitation lands, including clay, coal, oil, gas, gravel, sand, dirt, and
sod, under the following conditions:
a. Any such sale, exchange, or transaction must allow for the submission of bids
pursuant to a notice published in at least one official county newspaper. The sale,
exchange, or transaction is exempt from the provisions of sections 54-01-05.2
and 54-01-05.5.
b. Any such sale, exchange, or transaction may not be made for less than the
appraised value, and the state reserves the right to reject any and all bids.
c. The commissioner of university and school lands or the commissioner's designee
shall provide technical assistance and advice to the director of the department of
corrections and rehabilitation in any transaction.
d. All legal documents, papers, and instruments required by any transaction must be
reviewed and approved as to form and legality by the attorney general.
e. Any of these transactions can be entered into on any terms and conditions
permitted by law and approved by the governor.
f. All funds and proceeds realized from any of these transactions must be placed in
an interest-bearing fund in the state treasury, designated as the North Dakota
state penitentiary land fund to be used for the acquisition of additional land and
facilities; to maintain, expand, or develop affiliated facilities; to relocate the
Missouri River correctional center and the farming and ranching operations of the
North Dakota state penitentiary; or for penitentiary renovation.
To provide meals at a fair value or without a charge to officers and employees of the
department as required by their job assignments.
To accept property forfeited or seized in accordance with law.
To collect costs and fees from persons on correctional supervision for the supervision
services, control devices, and programs as implemented by the department to assist in
making community corrections an effective alternative to incarceration. A person on
active supervision is presumed able to pay assessed fees unless the director, giving
due consideration to the fiscal obligations and resources of the probationer,
determines otherwise. A person with the ability to pay assessed fees who refuses to
pay must be returned to the court for a judicial determination. In addition to any other
remedies allowed by law, the department may enforce and collect any unpaid
supervision costs and fees imposed as a condition of parole, probation, or under a
program implemented under this section in a civil judgment entered by a district court
of this state and may employ licensed collection agencies to enforce and collect any
unpaid supervision costs and fees.
To collect the costs of any presentence investigation and report incurred under
subsection 11 of section 12.1-32-02, giving due consideration to the financial
obligations and resources of the defendant.
To employ personnel and to establish policies and procedures to supervise sexually
dangerous individuals released to community placement on an outpatient basis in
accordance with section 25-03.3-24.
54-23.3-05. Appointment and removal of officers.
The director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation with the approval of the
governor may appoint a director of the division of juvenile services, a director of the division of
adult services, and other division directors and personnel as deemed necessary for the effective
and efficient operation of the department. The director of the division of juvenile services, the
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director of the division of adult services, and other division directors who may be appointed shall
meet qualifications as established for the classified service. All other officers and employees of
each division must be appointed and removed by the director of the department of corrections
and rehabilitation. All officers and employees of the department of corrections and rehabilitation
are subject to the provisions of the state personnel policies.
54-23.3-06. Salaries of division directors and other officers.
The director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation shall determine the salary of
each division director within the limits of legislative appropriations and within the salary range of
the classified position as established by North Dakota human resource management services
for the position. All other officers and employees shall receive salaries determined by their
division director and approved by the director of the department.
54-23.3-07. Confidentiality of selected information pertaining to department of
corrections and rehabilitation employees.
Repealed by S.L. 1995, ch. 428, § 3.
54-23.3-08. Authority to lease land under the jurisdiction of the department.
The department of corrections and rehabilitation may lease land under the jurisdiction of the
department for the purpose of the construction and operation of a prerelease center.
Subsection 12 of section 54-23.3-04 does not apply to the lease authorized by this section. The
lease expires when the leased property is no longer used for a prerelease center, when the
lease operator breaches any material part of the lease, or twenty years after the date of the
lease, whichever occurs first, and all rights, title, and interest in any buildings, fixtures, and
improvements vest and remain with the state.
54-23.3-09. Reports regarding new programs.
Notwithstanding the powers granted under section 54-23.3-04, the director of the
department of corrections and rehabilitation may not authorize any new program to serve adult
or juvenile offenders, including programs that provide alternatives to conventional incarceration
and programs operated on a contract basis, if the program is anticipated to cost in excess of
one hundred thousand dollars during the biennium in which the program is implemented or any
subsequent biennium without first reporting to the legislative assembly or, if the legislative
assembly is not in session, the budget section of the legislative management.
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