Family Rights and Advocacy in North Dakota

If your husband, daughter, brother, or parent is locked up in North Dakota, you have landed in one of the smallest prison systems in the country. That cuts both ways. The North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCR) holds only around 1,500 to 1,700 people on any given day, spread across a handful of facilities clustered near Bismarck, Mandan, and Jamestown. A small system can feel more personal and reachable than a sprawling one. But it also means North Dakota has fewer outside advocacy groups than bigger states, and because bed space is limited, some North Dakota residents get sent to facilities out of state, hundreds of miles from home.

This guide is written for you, the person on the outside. I have been where your loved one is, and I know that the family carries a load nobody talks about. Here is how to stay connected, what your loved one is entitled to, and where to turn when something goes wrong.

What the DOCR System Looks Like

Almost everyone entering the DOCR starts at the North Dakota State Penitentiary (NDSP) in Bismarck for orientation. From there, people are classified by custody level and moved to the facility that fits their security needs and programming.

The main adult facilities are:

NDSP (North Dakota State Penitentiary), Bismarck. The intake hub and the state's higher-security facility for men.

James River Correctional Center (JRCC) and the James River Minimum Unit (JRMU), Jamestown. Men's facilities, including lower-custody housing.

Missouri River Correctional Center (MRCC), Bismarck. A minimum-custody men's facility.

Heart River Correctional Center (HRCC), Mandan. A women's facility.

Dakota Women's Correctional and Rehabilitation Center (DWCRC), New England, North Dakota. A women's facility operated by a contractor on the DOCR's behalf.

Housing location is public information. If you do not know where your loved one is, start with the DOCR resident lookup on docr.nd.gov. Be aware that custody levels change over time, people get transferred, and some residents may be placed at out-of-state facilities when North Dakota contracts for beds elsewhere.

Staying Connected: Phone Calls

The DOCR uses Securus as its telephone provider. Calls only go one direction, your loved one calls you, and every call is recorded and may be monitored, except for properly set up legal calls with an attorney.

When someone first arrives at NDSP for orientation, they get two initial five-minute phone calls for free. After those two calls, every call has to be paid for, either by your loved one from their account or by you as the approved person on the other end.

Before your loved one can call you, you have to be on their approved calling list. That requires a completed and signed Telephone Application. You can do this two ways: fill out the Electronic Telephone Application online (there is a Spanish version too), or print the fillable PDF application, complete it, and mail it to Securus following the mailing instructions on the DOCR telephone page. Set up a prepaid Securus account so there is money available when the calls come.

If you ever need to stop calls from a particular person, you have two options. When a call comes in, press option 6 to permanently block your number from that facility. Just know that this blocks every caller at that facility, so if you also talk with someone else there, their calls stop too, and if the blocked person transfers to another facility, the block does not follow them. The cleaner approach is to call the facility directly and ask them to remove your number from that one person's contact list.

Staying Connected: Mail

Here is some good news that families in a lot of other states no longer get. North Dakota still delivers real, physical mail. The DOCR has not switched to the scan-and-tablet system that many states now use, so your handwritten letter, your kid's drawing, your photos, those actually reach your person's hands.

There are rules, and they matter, because mail that breaks them gets rejected:

Address it correctly with the resident's full name and ID number. For NDSP: Resident Name and Number, North Dakota State Penitentiary, P.O. Box 5521, Bismarck, ND 58506-5521. For JRCC and JRMU: Resident Name and Number, James River Correctional Center, 2521 Circle Drive, Jamestown, ND 58401. Confirm the address for HRCC, MRCC, and DWCRC on the DOCR correspondence page before you send.

You can send up to 30 photos per envelope, and you may send more than one envelope a day.

Non-personal correspondence is capped at 10 pages per envelope, again with multiple envelopes allowed in a day.

The sender's name has to match the return address. Mail that comes from a different person than the name on the return address will be rejected. Do not mail a letter for someone else under your own return address.

Publications (books, magazines) may be accepted only if they are new and sent directly from an approved publisher or vendor, and only if they do not violate DOCR policy. Check the Publications section of the Facility Handbook first.

Staying Connected: Visiting

Visiting in North Dakota is done in person, and each facility layers its own rules on top of the general DOCR visitation rules. A few things apply broadly:

Bring a photo ID. Adults must show ID to get in. At Heart River, for example, everyone except visitors under 16 must have photo ID on them, and failure to produce it is grounds to deny entry.

Anyone under 18 must be accompanied by their parent or legal guardian. If a child is coming with someone other than a parent or guardian, you generally need written consent from the child's parent or guardian and special permission from the facility.

Money for vending machines comes with strict limits. At JRCC and JRMU you may bring up to $20, in one-dollar bills and quarters only, sealed in a clear plastic bag you provide. At MRCC the limit is $10 in the same form, and you may bring your car keys in. Read each facility's page, because the dollar amount and the rule about keys differ by site.

Bringing a baby is allowed, within limits. Facilities let you bring in a pacifier, two diapers, two baby bottles, one small sealed jar of baby food, one Ziploc bag of wipes, and one small baby blanket. Important detail for parents: any formula must be pre-mixed into liquid form. Powdered formula will not be allowed in.

Everything else stays locked in your vehicle, and at several facilities your keys go in a locker or stay at the front gate. When in doubt, call the facility before you make the drive, especially if you are traveling a long way or bringing children.

The COIP Initiative: North Dakota's Family-Focused Effort

One thing North Dakota does that is worth knowing about is the Children of Incarcerated Parents (COIP) Initiative. The DOCR started it in 2018, and it pulls together people from the DOCR, the state Health and Human Services department, school systems, and community partners. The whole point is to increase visitation and family activities across all DOCR facilities, and to strengthen the bond between an incarcerated parent and their children, because keeping that bond intact lowers the harm to the kids and lowers the chance the parent comes back.

For you, this matters in two practical ways. First, it means the agency itself has an official commitment to family contact, which is something you can point to when you are asking a facility to support visits or family programming. Second, the DOCR publishes resources under COIP, including a tip sheet called "Supporting Children of Incarcerated Parents: A Tip Sheet for Parents and Caregivers," that can help you talk to your children about what is happening and prepare them for visits. Look for the COIP page on docr.nd.gov.

Free Through Recovery

If your loved one is dealing with addiction or other behavioral health issues, ask about Free Through Recovery. It is a community-based behavioral health program built for people involved with the criminal justice system who have behavioral health concerns, and it is meant to wrap recovery support around them as they move back toward the community. It is worth raising with their case manager as part of release planning.

Your Rights and Your Loved One's Rights

Families often ask what they are actually entitled to. Be clear-eyed here: most rights inside belong to the incarcerated person, not to you. But there are things you can rely on and levers you can pull.

Your loved one keeps the right to reasonable contact with the outside world, through mail, phone, and visiting, subject to the rules above and to discipline. They have a right to medical and mental health care, to practice their religion, and to be free from abuse. They have a right to use the facility grievance system to formally complain, and to access the courts and their attorney.

On release timing: under North Dakota law, people convicted of crimes committed after August 1, 1995, can earn five days a month of good time, unless their sentence is six months or less. Good time can move a release date earlier, and disciplinary problems can take it away.

The Parole Board decides parole. If you, as a family member, want the Board to consider information about your loved one, you can write to them. Send your correspondence to the North Dakota Parole Board, P.O. Box 1898, Bismarck, ND 58502-1898. Watch their submission deadlines, because information that arrives late may get only limited review. A thoughtful, specific letter about your loved one's support system, housing, and job prospects on the outside can genuinely help.

When Something Goes Wrong: How to Advocate

If your loved one is being mistreated, denied medical care, or hurt, here is how to escalate.

Start inside. Encourage your loved one to file a grievance through the facility's process, because the system usually expects an internal complaint first, and a documented grievance creates a paper trail. You can also call the facility directly. Facility contact numbers are listed on the Adult Facilities page at docr.nd.gov.

Go up the chain at the DOCR. If the facility does not resolve it, contact the DOCR central office in Bismarck. Be specific: dates, names, what happened, what you are asking for.

Bring in the Protection and Advocacy Project. This is North Dakota's most important outside resource for a lot of families, and many people have never heard of it. The Protection and Advocacy Project (P&A) is North Dakota's federally mandated protection and advocacy organization for people with disabilities, which includes people with mental illness and developmental disabilities. Federal law gives P&A the authority to investigate abuse and neglect and to access facilities and records. If your loved one has a disability or a mental illness and is being denied care, held inappropriately, or abused, P&A can step in where you cannot. Find them at ndpanda.org. The agency is overseen by a legislative Committee on Protection and Advocacy, so it has real standing in the state.

Contact the ACLU of North Dakota. The ACLU of North Dakota (aclund.org) works on civil liberties statewide and has specifically committed to addressing how people with disabilities are overrepresented in jails and prisons. They do not take every individual case, but they track patterns and can be a resource on systemic problems.

Use national organizations for specific issues. The Human Rights Defense Center and Prison Legal News (humanrightsdefensecenter.org) cover prisoner rights and the cost of prison communications nationwide. Families Against Mandatory Minimums (famm.org) works on sentencing reform. For phone and communication costs specifically, Worth Rises (worthrises.org) tracks the industry and pushes for lower rates.

Loop in elected officials. North Dakota is small enough that a letter or call to a state legislator actually gets read. If you are facing a systemic problem, your representative can ask the DOCR questions you cannot.

A Note on Victim Services

You may run across the DOCR Victim Services Program (701-328-6195, or 1-866-631-8463, registering through ND SAVIN/VINELink). It is important to understand that this program exists to serve crime victims, not the families of incarcerated people. If you are the loved one of someone inside, that office is not your advocate, and registering there will not help you support your person. Use the family channels described above instead.

Taking Care of Yourself

The drives across North Dakota are long, the winters are brutal, and if your loved one got sent out of state the distance can feel impossible. Lean on the things that are built for families: get on the calling list early, set up your Securus account, write real letters while you still can in a state that delivers them, and use the COIP resources if you have children. Connect with other families who understand. You are doing time on the outside, and staying steady for yourself is part of staying steady for your person.