Title 12 — Corrections, Parole, and Probation

1. Subject to reasonable safety, security, discipline, and correctional facility administration requirements, the administrator of each correctional facility shall: a. Ensure inmates have confidential access to attorneys and their authorized representatives. b. Ensure that inmate…

Searches of inmates may only be conducted: 1. Without undue or unnecessary force or indignity to the person searched. 2. When reasonably necessary to control contraband in the institution or to recover missing or stolen property.

Repealed by S.L. 1997, ch. 113, § 29.

A correctional facility may utilize the resources of the community to provide inmates with available educational, career and technical education, counseling, and work release opportunities. A correctional facility may, if possible, and subject to reasonable safety, security, disc…

A correctional facility may maintain a written inmate work assignment plan that provides for inmate employment, subject to the number of work opportunities available and the maintenance of reasonable safety, security, discipline, and correctional facility administration requireme…

A correctional facility may provide for a work release program for inmates unless the court has ordered that an inmate may not receive work release. Work release projects may include public service and community service projects, and may utilize any particular skill or trade of p…

Any inmate who participates in a work release program shall pay the correctional facility for the room and board costs incurred by the inmate while confined in the correctional facility, residential halfway house, or similar alternative facility. The administrator shall determine…

If a correctional facility or any adjoining building shall be on fire or another emergency occurs, and the inmates may be exposed to danger, the correctional facility staff shall remove the inmates to a place of safety, and there confine them as long as necessary to avoid the dan…

A correctional facility shall adopt rules for safety, security, discipline, and correctional facility administration. If an inmate violates any of the rules of a correctional facility, the correctional facility may impose disciplinary sanctions in accordance with its rules.

1. It is unlawful for a person to willfully: a. Manufacture, or possess with intent to manufacture, a controlled substance in a correctional facility. b. Deliver, or possess with intent to deliver, a controlled substance in a correctional facility. This subsection does not apply …

Each administrator is responsible for a correctional facility register in which must be entered such inmate information on such forms as the department of corrections and rehabilitation shall prescribe by rule.

Repealed by S.L. 1997, ch. 113, § 29.

The department of corrections and rehabilitation shall: 1. Prescribe rules establishing minimum standards for the construction, operation, and maintenance of public or private correctional facilities. 2. Prescribe rules for the care and treatment of inmates. 3. Cause rules and re…

1. The correctional facility inspector shall submit a written inspection report to the administrator of the correctional facility and the director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation within thirty days following each inspection. 2. The inspection report must speci…

1. A correctional facility shall comply with the requirements of the rules adopted by the department of corrections and rehabilitation unless a variance has been granted by the department of corrections and rehabilitation. Any request for a variance must be in writing and must ci…

Repealed by S.L. 2007, ch. 110, § 6.

1. The medical, psychological, and treatment records of an inmate are confidential and may not be disclosed directly or indirectly to any person, organization, or agency, except as provided in this section. A court may order the inspection of the records, or parts of the records,…

1. A correctional facility may authorize an employee to provide medication to an inmate of a correctional facility if the employee is: a. Licensed or registered under title 43 and is providing the medication within the scope of practice of the profession for which the individual …

The administrator of a correctional facility may allow a qualified correctional officer to carry a weapon, including a firearm, during the transport of another governmental agency's prisoner if the correctional facility has a contract with the governmental agency to transport the…

The governing body of a correctional facility that contracts with another state or a regional correctional center, county, or city of another state for the confinement of lawfully committed state, county, or city inmates from the other state is subject to the following conditions…

An inmate sentenced to a correctional facility under this chapter is eligible to earn sentence reductions based upon criteria established by the administrator, including sentence reduction for good conduct. While incarcerated in a correctional facility, an offender may earn no mo…

An inmate is financially responsible for the costs of medical or health care, except for an intake health care assessment and related testing for an examination of the inmate made at the request of the facility. The correctional facility may seek reimbursement from the inmate up …

The director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation may participate in programs in which offenders committed to the legal and physical custody of the department may be gainfully employed or participate in an educational or other rehabilitation program either in or ou…

1. An offender, except an offender sentenced to a penalty of life imprisonment without the opportunity for parole as the result of conviction of a class AA felony under section 12.1-20-03 or of murder under section 12.1-16-01, may be eligible for programs outside facilities under…

An offender shall use any funds earned in work release in the following order: support of dependents; for necessary expenses of the offender, including room and board costs of the institution; any administration fee and fine; and restitution if a part of the sentence. Any balance…

Repealed by S.L. 1975, ch. 106, § 673.

Except as provided under section 12.1-32-09.1, an offender committed to the legal and physical custody of the department of corrections and rehabilitation is eligible to earn sentence reductions based upon performance criteria established through department and penitentiary rules…

Repealed by S.L. 1991, ch. 118, § 4.

Except as provided under section 12.1-32-09.1, offenders committed to the legal and physical custody of the department of corrections and rehabilitation may receive a lump sum or a monthly rate of meritorious conduct sentence reduction for outstanding performance or heroic acts o…

Meritorious conduct sentence reductions may be awarded for any of the following performances or acts: 1. Exceptional quantity and quality of work far beyond normal expectations for the job assignment. 2. Beneficial suggestions resulting in substantial savings to the state. 3. Act…

In this title, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Commutation" means the change of the punishment to which a person is sentenced to a less severe punishment. 2. "Conditional pardon" means a pardon, commutation, reprieve, or remission of fine subject to terms and condition…

The governor may appoint a pardon advisory board to consist of five members including the attorney general and two members of the parole board. The governor shall appoint two persons who are residents and citizens of this state to the remaining two positions. The governor shall a…

If the governor appoints a pardon advisory board, the pardon advisory board may adopt rules necessary to govern its proceedings, including the time and place of meetings of the board. The governor may call meetings of the pardon advisory board as the governor deems necessary to c…

The director of the department of corrections and rehabilitation or the director's designee shall serve as the pardon clerk under this chapter. The pardon clerk shall: 1. Maintain a register of all applications filed for commutation, reprieve, pardon, conditional pardon, or remis…

The pardon clerk shall provide written notice of an application for a commutation, reprieve, pardon, conditional pardon, or remission of fine to the district court and the state's attorneys in the county or counties where the judgment of conviction was entered against the applica…

If the governor has granted an application for a commutation, reprieve, conditional pardon, or remission of fine and the applicant is still in custody in any correctional facility, the governor may reconsider the decision any time before the applicant is released from the correct…

The judge and the state's attorney may make any recommendations that may be of assistance to the governor, pardon advisory board, or parole board in considering the person's case. The judge before whom any person has been convicted of a felony and the state's attorney of the coun…

The court reporter, at the direction of the judge or state's attorney, shall prepare the official statements of the judge and state's attorney. The clerk of court with whom the statements are filed shall attach a copy of the statements to the criminal judgment. The clerk shall pr…

The records of an applicant for commutation, reprieve, pardon, conditional pardon, or remission of fine are subject to section 12-47-36. The pardon clerk may permit the inspection of an application for a commutation, reprieve, pardon, conditional pardon, or remission of fine; the…

As used in this chapter: 1. "Closed" means subject to examination only by a clerk of court, a judge of the court, the juvenile commission, a criminal justice agency, the defendant, the defendant's counsel, a state's attorney, or any person upon written order of a judge of the cou…

1. An individual may file a petition to seal a criminal record if: a. The individual pled guilty to or was found guilty of a misdemeanor offense and the individual has not been convicted of a new crime for at least three years before filing the petition; b. The individual pled gu…

1. A petition to seal a criminal record must be filed in the existing criminal case for the offense. 2. Subject to redaction requirements in rule 3.4 of the North Dakota Rules of Court, a petition must include: a. The petitioner's full name and all other legal names or aliases th…

1. The court may grant a petition to seal a criminal record if the court determines by clear and convincing evidence: a. The petitioner has shown good cause for granting the petition; b. The benefit to the petitioner outweighs the presumption of openness of the criminal record; c…

1. If a court enters an order of nonconviction on or after August 1, 2025, the court shall close the court record upon the expiration of sixty-one days. 2. The defendant may file a petition to the court to have the court record closed if the court entered an order of nonconvictio…

As used in this chapter, "deflection process" means a procedure for facilitating an assessment, service, or treatment in lieu of incarceration, criminal charges, or unnecessary admissions to the emergency department if a peace officer or first responder is directed to intervene w…

A peace officer, as defined under section 12-63-01, may transport or refer an individual to a local hospital, detoxification center, community behavioral health center, or other appropriate treatment facility. A tier 1b mental health professional, as defined under section 25-01-0…

1. A local government, law enforcement agency, or other first responder agency may establish a deflection process in partnership with one or more licensed providers of behavioral health services or substance use disorder treatment services, subject to the provisions of this secti…