A state of emergency is on the horizon after the state Corrections Department announces they will not meet their July 1st, 2020 deadline to reduce the prison population to operational capacity.
State law requires that the total prison population be below 140% of design capacity to be considered operational.
The population currently stands at 151% of designed capacity.
Corrections Director Scott Frakes quickly put to rest rumors that the declaration would mean a sudden exodus of inmates from prison.
“This is not correct,” said Frakes.
However, Chair of the state Parole Board, Rosalyn Cotton, did state that, as a result of the emergency, the board will be reviewing more cases of eligible inmates.
She did not, however, commit to a set number of inmates cases to be reviewed nor a timeline for the reviews.
“The goal is going to be to stick with the law,” said Cotton. “There will be that process in place to make sure we are seeing those individuals according to their sentence structure and their parole eligibility date.”
Cotton hopes the emergency declaration will increase interest in parole among the eligible inmate population.
According to a NDCS hand-out, 804 inmates are currently eligible for parole.
For his part, Frakes said a large part of the problem is that more people are coming into the system than corrections have places to put them.
“To take our work to the next level, we need to definitely build space that is reflective of how corrections is done in 2020.”
Frakes says that he’s advocating for a new prison, but admits he doesn’t know where his proposal will stand nine months from now as the state grapples with the effects of the pandemic