54-23.3-04. Director - Powers and duties
The director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation has the following powers
and duties:
1. To manage and control all institutions and programs within the department and to
administer and enforce the laws with which the department is charged.
2. To promote a unified criminal justice system and develop a statewide correctional
philosophy in cooperation with the courts, law enforcement, and other entities in the
criminal justice system.
3. To develop necessary programs and services for adult and juvenile offenders, within
legislative appropriations, to provide for their treatment and rehabilitation and to
recognize their special needs.
4. To develop, maintain, and revise as required a comprehensive master plan for the
state's correctional system which must indicate the system's needs and resources.
5. To establish policies and procedures necessary to carry out the responsibilities of the
department.
6. To organize the department into an adult services division, a juvenile services division,
and such other divisions that will enable it to function most effectively and efficiently.
7. To exercise general supervisory and appointing authority over all department
employees, subject to any applicable personnel laws and rules.
8. To employ and remove the director of the division of juvenile services, the director of
the division of adult services, and other division directors and personnel who may be
deemed necessary by the director of the department. Until the director of the
department of corrections and rehabilitation has been granted the full-time equivalent
positions within the department's budget for the division director positions, or when the
positions are vacant, the responsibilities of these positions must be assumed by the
director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation or by the director's
designee.
9. To delegate authority to subordinates as necessary and appropriate, clearly
delineating the delegated authority and limitations.
10. To promote the development of alternatives to conventional incarceration for those
offenders who can be dealt with more effectively in less restrictive, community-based
facilities and programs.
11. To contract for correctional services, and to provide such services, with the United
States, Canada, other states, and any of their governmental subdivisions and
agencies and with another agency or governmental unit in this state, or with any
private or public correctional or treatment facility or agency. The director shall
reimburse the entity at an amount based upon the services required for the housing
and treatment of inmates. The director may also contract to provide services, without
cost to the state, for persons held by any of the jurisdictions mentioned in this section.
If a treaty is in effect between the United States and a foreign country for the transfer
and exchange of offenders, the director of the department of corrections and
rehabilitation, upon recommendation of the warden and the approval of the governor,
may on behalf of the state under the terms of the treaty transfer or exchange offenders
and take any action necessary for the state to participate in the treaty.
12. To lease land owned by the state under the jurisdiction of the department of
corrections and rehabilitation. A lease by the director is not subject to the conditions of
this subsection. The director may sell or exchange, with the governor's approval,
selected portions of land owned by the state under the jurisdiction of the department of
corrections and rehabilitation and may sell, trade, lease, or grant mining easements to
extract and remove any resources found on, in, or under said department of
corrections and rehabilitation lands, including clay, coal, oil, gas, gravel, sand, dirt, and
sod, under the following conditions:
a. Any such sale, exchange, or transaction must allow for the submission of bids
pursuant to a notice published in at least one official county newspaper. The sale,
exchange, or transaction is exempt from the provisions of sections 54-01-05.2
and 54-01-05.5.
b. Any such sale, exchange, or transaction may not be made for less than the
appraised value, and the state reserves the right to reject any and all bids.
c. The commissioner of university and school lands or the commissioner's designee
shall provide technical assistance and advice to the director of the department of
corrections and rehabilitation in any transaction.
d. All legal documents, papers, and instruments required by any transaction must be
reviewed and approved as to form and legality by the attorney general.
e. Any of these transactions can be entered into on any terms and conditions
permitted by law and approved by the governor.
f. All funds and proceeds realized from any of these transactions must be placed in
an interest-bearing fund in the state treasury, designated as the North Dakota
state penitentiary land fund to be used for the acquisition of additional land and
facilities; to maintain, expand, or develop affiliated facilities; to relocate the
Missouri River correctional center and the farming and ranching operations of the
North Dakota state penitentiary; or for penitentiary renovation.
13. To provide meals at a fair value or without a charge to officers and employees of the
department as required by their job assignments.
14. To accept property forfeited or seized in accordance with law.
15. To collect costs and fees from persons on correctional supervision for the supervision
services, control devices, and programs as implemented by the department to assist in
making community corrections an effective alternative to incarceration. A person on
active supervision is presumed able to pay assessed fees unless the director, giving
due consideration to the fiscal obligations and resources of the probationer,
determines otherwise. A person with the ability to pay assessed fees who refuses to
pay must be returned to the court for a judicial determination. In addition to any other
remedies allowed by law, the department may enforce and collect any unpaid
supervision costs and fees imposed as a condition of parole, probation, or under a
program implemented under this section in a civil judgment entered by a district court
of this state and may employ licensed collection agencies to enforce and collect any
unpaid supervision costs and fees.
16. To collect the costs of any presentence investigation and report incurred under
subsection 11 of section 12.1-32-02, giving due consideration to the financial
obligations and resources of the defendant.
17. To employ personnel and to establish policies and procedures to supervise sexually
dangerous individuals released to community placement on an outpatient basis in
accordance with section 25-03.3-24.
18. To employ personnel and to establish policies and procedures to supervise a child
when a court orders supervision and management by the department under
subsection 1 of section 27-20.4-18.
19. To employ personnel and establish policies and procedures to authorize a child of a
female inmate to reside at the Heart River correctional center under the care and
general control of the female inmate if the child is eighteen months of age or younger.
The policies must include considerations of the residential safety of the child, the
length of time the child may reside within the facility, and treatment or other
penological interest.
