Political Quotes

“I find it highly ironic that the bill before us takes flexibility away from North Dakota's prison plan to make people serve 85 or greater of their sentences. I might add, North Dakota has people serving a longer portion of their sentence than any other State in the country. Under the bill passed last year, we were set to get eligible to receive $8.8 million for prison construction, but under the language-- this is a quote from the law--``to construct, develop, expand, modify, operate or improve correctional facilities to insure such space is available for violent offenders.'' Let me read to you the language in the bill that is before us. It would allow us to take the money to build, expand, and operate. This is a critical distinction. They have taken from North Dakota the ability to advance plans that take prisoners out of the State penitentiary, the nonviolent ones, send them out to county jails, to make bed space for violent offenders in the State penitentiaries, just what we want to accomplish. But because of a drafting error, they have taken from North Dakota this right to access money for bed space for violent offenders. We have done it because we have been overly prescriptive. We have taken from States flexibility.”