The director of administration for the state Department of Corrections says his department is still putting together a proposal for what to do with the Missouri River Correctional Center, south of Bismarck.
The MRCC is close to the Missouri River. Some state lawmakers have wanted to move that minimum security facility to another location – and develop the area into parkland. That idea came about after the MRCC was flooded out in 2011.
Dave Krabbenhoft told the Legislature’s interim Government Services Committee the MRCC needs a lot of work.
"Not only do we have the dining hall that desperately needs to be replaced, now we've discovered mold in the residential area," said Krabbenhoft. "As we're discovering it, we're remediating it."
A consultant looked at the possibility of moving the MRCC to the Youth Correctional Center site near Mandan. Krabbenhoft says that would cost more than $27 million. And he says construction at the current site will likely be around $7 million. But he did tell the Committee there’s an option to keep the facility where it is, and develop some of the state-owned land into a day park.
"Obviously, we would need to re-evaluate as to what impact that would have on security," said Krabbenhoft. "And we would change some security operations."
Krabbenhoft says the Department of Corrections is currently putting together its budget proposal for the upcoming biennium. And he says that budget will have recommendations for the MRCC property.