The State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has reached an agreement with the Burleigh-Morton Detention Center in Bismarck to house overflow inmates.
The assistant jail administrator, Burleigh County Sheriff's Major Trent Wangin, told the Legislature’s interim Regional Jail Study Subcommittee the agreement is for 120 guaranteed beds for the DOCR.
"We have a completed pod, which is 120 beds, not being utilized at this time," Wangin told the subcommittee. "This agreement will be for securing all 120 beds, and the associated areas with that pod, to the Department of Corrections to help with overflow housing."
Wangin said the agreement includes programming rooms, and space for the DOCR staff.
"The Detention Center is going to provide the security staff, the correctional officers, to run that operation," Wangin said. "But, so we can make this somewhat of a prison atmosphere, within a county jail, DOCR will be providing staff, for case management, counseling, treatment and other professional staff, working right out of our building."
Wangin said he expects the agreement to be signed shortly. He said the plan is being presented to the Burleigh and Morton County Commissions.
ICE DETENTION
Wangin also told the subcommittee the facility is now housing between 20 and 20 detainees for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
"If we had the staff, we would have 200 ICE detainees," Wangin said. "What we're doing at this time is to focus on holding detainees that are apprehended within the borders of North Dakota, but there are time we have helped with detainees arrested in the tri-state area, specifically the state of Minnesota."
Wagin said the jail capacity dictates how many the facility can take. He said that will likely be phased-out, once the agreement with DOCR is finalized.
