Jill Schramm/MDN North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley discusses Senate Bill 2128 while Chief Deputy Attorney General Claire Holloway Ness listens during a meeting at The Minot Daily News on Tuesday.

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley is promoting legislation he says will protect the public by ensuring violent offenders who need to be behind bars aren’t released to commit more crimes.

The North Dakota Department of Corrections sets aside judges’ decisions when it releases violent offenders after serving only a fraction of their sentences, said Wrigley, who with his staff visited The Minot Daily News on Tuesday to discuss legislation that introduces truth-in-sentencing policies for the state corrections system.

“What we’ve identified is there is a complete lack of truth in sentencing in North Dakota. There’s no transparency. There’s no accountability, and to top it off, you won’t be surprised, there are no results,” Wrigley said. “There are no results that would ever support a system that is systematically letting violent criminals out the side door in many cases well before they’re paroled, and in every case, well before they’ve served their sentence.”

Wrigley said he is troubled by rising trends in violent crime and the recidivism rate of violent offenders. He believes the trend is related to the North Dakota Department of Corrections’ embrace of the so-called “Norway Model” and “smart on crime” policies, which have allowed violent offenders to be released after serving only 20% of their sentences.

“They have found so many ways to do the opposite of truth in sentencing. We’ve got so many documented cases here. It is quite routine. You talk to people who have served time, they’ll tell you. They know this,” Wrigley said.

The Attorney General’s Office introduced Senate Bill 2128 to require individuals convicted of violent crimes to serve 85% of their sentences before they qualify for release. The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on Jan. 21-22.

Wrigley said he is visiting with newsrooms around the state to address concerns and dispel myths that arose from testimony from opponents to the bill, who argued it would crowd prisons and require a large price tag if implemented.

Wrigley had sought in the last legislative session to implement stringent mandatory minimum sentences in a bill that was ultimately defeated. Wrigley defended SB 2128, saying it had significant differences from that previous attempt but it retains similar objectives for addressing violent crime in the state.

Wrigley has introduced an amendment to the bill to clarify that violent offenders still would be eligible for parole after serving 50% of their sentences. SB 2128 also would tag mandatory sentences of 14-30 days for those convicted of resisting arrest, assaulting law enforcement officers and felony fleeing, which would be served consecutively to any underlying sentences. Wrigley said such measures are necessary to deter behavior that endangers the safety and morale of law enforcement officers throughout the state.

Wrigley said his office’s analysis of DOCR data found one factor contributing to early releases is the prison system’s “illusory” calculation for “good time,” which inflates the amount of credit an inmate can earn for good behavior. One individual case highlighted by Wrigley involved an inmate who received 40 days of good time per month served, allowing her to be paroled after serving only six months of a four year sentence.

Another aspect that concerns Wrigley has been the number of violent offenders transferred to transitional facilities or halfway houses before they were officially granted parole by the parole board. Wrigley pointed to recent testimony at the Legislature from a director of a transitional facility in Bismarck, who said there were typically five walkaways or escapes every month.

Wrigley’s bill still would allow nonviolent offenders to serve their sentences in halfway houses but require violent offenders to serve 85% of a prison sentence before they can be transferred to such a facility.

“They have nothing to show you that they’ve done that’s improving lives of criminal defendants, and more importantly the lives of people in our communities. Nothing. They have nothing to point to to show you they’re succeeding. We have a violent crime rate that’s rising to tell you that it’s not working. It coincides completely with these things,” Wrigley said. “It is a very modest proposal. It is saying, serve the sentence that the person we all pay to make that profound decision of how long is a human being going to be incarcerated (imposes). They are accountable to that. They answer to voters for that.”

Senate Bill 2128 is scheduled to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee for committee work today at 8 a.m.