Wayne Stenehjem says he has a three-point plan to address North Dakota's issues regarding behavioral health and prison reform.
Stenehjem is a Republican candidate for Governor, and also currently serves as the state's Attorney General. He says North Dakota is facing a significant problem: state and local prison facilities are full, and current trends suggest those populations will continue to grow. Stenehjem says much of the overcrowding issue stems from substance abuse and mental illness. He says many prisoners are incarcerated as a means to getting treatment, and only relapse or re-offend upon release. He says a lack of treatment resources in the jails and prisons leads to a high recidivism rate among those inmates. Stenehjem says his three-point plan will focus on proper treatment, education and public awareness, and sentencing reform. Stenehjem says investing in treatment should reduce incarceration rates. He says this issue is too great to ignore.
"If we don't do anything, we'll need to put even more state resources into keeping up with the growth by building evermore prisons, evermore local jails, rather than investing in crime and recidivism reduction strategies."
Over the past decade, North Dakota's arrest rate rose by 26 percent and the violent crime rate has doubled. County jail populations have nearly doubled as well, and the state's prison population has risen by a third. Stenehjem says one way to address the shortage of licensed addiction professionals is to offer free or reduced tuition, as well as paid internships to attract people to the field. Stenehjem says if elected governor, this issue would be a top priority.
Stenehjem is facing his Republican opponent, Fargo businessman Doug Burgum in the upcoming primary election. Burgum says he agrees that violent crime and drug abuse in the state needs to be addressed - but wonders if it could have been looked at sooner.
"When I hear an attorney general who's been there for sixteen years who's had all these problems rise during his time in office say that he's really going to work on it when he's governor - you have to look at the track record and say, 'Why wouldn't he just work on it as attorney general?' I'd like to remind voters that Wayne is still in the middle of his term, and after the June 14th primary if he loses at that time, he'll still be the attorney general and he can still work on this. And I've said to Wayne that I'd look forward to working with him on this issue with him as attorney general because this is his area of responsibility in state government where we've seen these increases, and he's the right guy to drive it."
Burgum agrees the prevention, education and treatment need to be the focus in combating the issue.