CAROLINE GRUESKINBismarck Tribune
Note: Public tours of the Burleigh Morton Detention Center will be held on May 15 and 16 from 3:30 to 8 p.m. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the tours would be held this weekend.
For Burleigh County Sheriff Pat Heinert, the new jail project began nine years ago.
Heinert tells the story of a man who was released from jail on a cold January day. That former inmate walked from the jail to a gas station, stole more than $100 worth of stuff and waited for the police to arrest him. He returned to jail and sat another 90 days. When he was released in mid-April, he left and wasn't seen again.
"That's how the whole thing started for me," said Heinert from his new office at the Burleigh Morton County Detention Center, which is set to start housing inmates next month. "We just can't open the doors any longer and let them walk out."
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Heinert said he is hopeful the $69 million, 525-bed jail will provide new opportunities to inmates, through work release, re-entry counseling and increased chaplain and alcoholics anonymous groups. It also will save the counties from shipping as many as 50 inmates nightly to jails around the state, a system that cost Burleigh County more than $1.125 million last year.
But some people worry the jail may soon be full again, with even more people incarcerated locally.
The new jail, which is located east of Bismarck, will house inmates from Burleigh and Morton counties. Starkly modernized from the current facilities, the new jail has five amphitheater-shaped pods, which contain six cell blocks each. Most cell blocks house 16 people, who live in two-person rooms around a central day room. The pods are classified by security level, meaning people with the most serious offenses and criminal histories will be housed together under the closest supervision. Those with more minor offenses and pasts will live in dorms. The jail also has a "special management unit," similar to a solitary confinement unit for inmates who break rules, have serious health problems or who staff decide need to be separated.
Each pod has a classroom attached to it, and trusted inmates can apply for jobs washing dishes, doing laundry and cleaning the facility for $2 an hour.
Arrestees from Mandan and Morton County will be driven to the facility, a concern to Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, who said it will take his officers off the streets.
The jail has space for expansion, as well. One part of the building has been left empty for potential building as an additional pod. And the grounds have room for new construction that could ultimately house 1,050 people.
The current jails house a total of 280.
Burleigh County increased by eight staff members to work at the facility, bringing the combined staff number to 78 people. Heinert said he expects to ask for more staff next year. Though the new facility will cost more to maintain and staff, he thinks the cost may even out after factoring in the price of housing inmates around the state —already $160,00 this year.
Jennifer Rewald, the program director, says she is excited about the expanded space. For the past few years, she has been unable to run classes for inmates, because the Burleigh County jail was so full. A third person is being added to the programming staff.
"We actually have somewhere to go. Now, it's like, we don't have anywhere to go," said Rewald, who plans to increase the number of alcoholics anonymous meetings held at the jail, bring chaplains in more frequently, offer a cognitive restructuring class called "Thinking for Change" and teach parenting and anger management.
Rewald said they will help inmates with re-entry, teaching inmates to fill out job applications, apply for Medicaid, obtain identification, find housing and learn money management skills for when they are released.
Right now, most inmates serving jail sentences are housed in other jails around the state. Now that they'll be in Burleigh County, she expects to get more of them on work or education release.
Also assisting, especially with mentally ill inmates, will be Mark Kemmett, a behavioral health specialist. At the new jail, he'll have reliable space —and WiFi —to perform assessments on those inmates and help connect them to services when they get out.
Kemmett said he is working with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Department of Human Services to get a psychologist to assist as-needed at the jail. There will not be a licensed addiction counselor.
Though the increased size adds opportunity, it also has sparked worry, even among the sheriff.
"I'm worried we're going to see that number grow," said Heinert, who believes the jail is safest at 60 to 75 percent capacity.
Heinert said that might be caused by the growing local population, changes in the law to make some drug crimes misdemeanors instead of felonies and a new rule allowing the prison to house some people in jails if the prison is full. The sheriff's department also plans to start delivering thousands of warrants that went unserved while that team was busy transporting inmates around the state.
The U.S. Marshal Service and neighboring counties with overcrowded jails will also likely want to send their inmates to Bismarck.
But a national jail expert said that simply increasing the size of the jail can have the unintended effect of increasing the number inside, especially pretrial.
"Sooner or later, and it’s usually sooner, these jails are full," said Christian Henrichson, co-author of a Vera Institute report called "In Our Own Backyard: Confronting Growth and Disparities in American Jails."
He said that independent actors —prosecutors, police, judges —don't typically think about how their decisions affect the jail population. But when jail continues to be an option, it gets used.
Gail Hagerty, presiding judge for the South Central Judicial District, said she does not think jail size will affect jail growth. That would more likely be the result of more crimes and minimum mandatory sentences, she said.
"If that was a big factor, we probably wouldn't be transporting people around," she said.
Currently, the two counties' jail incarceration rate is about 301 per 100,000 people age 15 to 64. This puts Burleigh and Morton counties at about .9 times the U.S. rate of 341 people. Were the new jail to fill up to 525 beds, the counties would increase to 659 people per 100,000, which would be 1.9 times the U.S. rate.
"Through one lens, it seems prudent to have the space available. But it’s a caution," Henrichson said. Referring to the beds that will be empty when the jail first opened, he asked, "Are there 200 people that are on the street today that shouldn’t be?"
Public tours of the Burleigh Morton Detention Center will be held on May 15 and 16 from 3:30 to 8 p.m. An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the tours would be held this weekend.
Reach Caroline Grueskin at 701-250-8225 or at caroline.grueskin@bismarcktribune.com
New jail to change court proceedings
The new jail is situated to make a "huge logistical shift" to the way court works. Instead of making an initial appearance before a judge, defendants will be seen via video at the jail. A new room at the jail labeled "court" contains rows of seats and a large flat-screen TV.
Defendants will watch a video explaining their rights and then they will address a judge, seated in the courtroom, regarding their charges, plea and bond, according to Gail Hagerty, presiding judge for the South Central Judicial District. They will also appear by video for bond reviews. For more major appearances, such as preliminary hearings, trials, changes of plea and sentencing, defendants will be transported to the courthouse in downtown Bismarck and Mandan.
Hagerty said she believes that judges will have adequate ability to communicate with defendants and judge their credibility.
"If we aren't, we’ll have to have an appearance in person," she said.
Todd Ewell, chief public defender for Bismarck-Mandan, said his office plans to staff an attorney at the jail for bond reviews.
"It's in our clients' best interestto be presentwith them," Ewell said. "I think that would limit incriminating statements our clients might get into."
But Jackson Lofgren, head of the criminal defense bar, said it may raise a question of fairness.
"I don't necessarily like the thought of the prosecutor and the judge being in the same room, and the defense attorney and defendant are clear across town. I don't know if that's necessarily being on equal footing in those hearings," he said. "We’ll have to see how it plays out."
See it yourself
What: The Burleigh Morton County Detention Center will be open to the public for tours next week.
When: Tours will be held every half hour from 3:30 to 8 p.m. May 15 and 16
Where: It is located at 4100 Apple Creek Road in east Bismarck.
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