North Dakota Prisons

Clicking on any of the North Dakota facilities below will direct you to an information page with Inmate Search, Visitation, Mail, Phone, Email, Most Wanted and FAQ for families and friends.

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North Dakota Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation - Prisons & Inmate Search

North Dakota State Prisons and Juvenile Facilities

The North Dakota State Penitentiary in Bismarck dates to 1885, a few years before statehood, and it is still the heart of the state’s prison system. Today it belongs to the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DOCR), which was created in 1989 to bring adult prisons, parole and probation, and youth corrections under one department. Earlier, the state’s institutions were overseen by a Board of Control, then a Board of Administration and later a Director of Institutions.

North Dakota has one of the smallest prison systems in the country, but it is full. In June 2025 DOCR held roughly 2,200 people, including about 280 women, and for two years the men’s prisons averaged nearly 200 people over capacity. The department has been paying county and regional jails to house the overflow.

North Dakota State Penitentiary, Bismarck: the maximum-security men’s prison, which also holds some medium- and minimum-custody men
James River Correctional Center, Jamestown: medium- and minimum-security men, opened as a prison in 1998
Missouri River Correctional Center, south of Bismarck: a minimum-security men’s facility with no fences, mostly for shorter sentences
Heart River Correctional Center, Mandan: minimum-security women, opened in 2021
Dakota Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Center, New England: holds women at every custody level; it is owned and run by a multi-county board under contract with DOCR

North Dakota drew national attention after a 2015 trip in which state lawmakers, judges and prison leaders toured Norway’s Halden Prison. Back home, the penitentiary added more job training and recreation and sharply limited the use of solitary confinement.

Arrival and orientation

Every man sentenced to DOCR is first received at the State Penitentiary for about four weeks of orientation. A classification committee then sets his custody level, housing and recommended programs, and he is placed at the penitentiary, James River or Missouri River. Women go through a similar orientation at the Dakota Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Center in New England. New arrivals can mail out visitor applications during orientation. Every visitor must be approved in advance using form SFN 7598, which can be filed online or mailed to the facility. Approval can take up to 15 business days, and the prison will not give results by phone, so wait to hear from your loved one.

Finding someone in a North Dakota prison

DOCR’s Resident Lookup searches by last name, or just the first few letters of it. It only shows people currently held in a North Dakota DOCR facility. People sentenced in North Dakota but housed in another state, and out-of-state prisoners held in North Dakota, will not appear.

Building to catch up with crowding

Construction is underway on a new Heart River Correctional Center in Mandan, the first prison in state history designed specifically for women. The 304-bed facility is expected to cost about $166.8 million and to open in fall 2027. Lawmakers also set aside $20 million in 2025 to design a new minimum-security men’s facility. In the meantime, DOCR is opening what its director called “four mini prisons”: temporary housing at Missouri River, a DOCR-run section of the Grand Forks jail, a unit at the Burleigh Morton Detention Center and a small reentry center in the northwest. Together they are meant to add up to 300 beds.

No death penalty since 1973

North Dakota does not have the death penalty. The state dropped it for ordinary murder in 1915, kept it only for treason and for murders committed by prisoners already serving life, and abolished it completely in 1973. Only eight people were ever executed here, all by hanging and one of them before statehood. The last was John Rooney, hanged on October 17, 1905. The one modern death sentence from a North Dakota courtroom was a federal case: Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. was sentenced to death in 2007 for the kidnapping and murder of college student Dru Sjodin.

North Dakota juvenile facilities

Youth committed by a juvenile court go into the custody of the DOCR Division of Juvenile Services (DJS), which also runs eight regional community offices. Its one secure facility is the North Dakota Youth Correctional Center in Mandan. The state constitution created it in 1890 as the State Reform School; it opened in 1903 and has been called the State Training School and State Industrial School before taking its current name in 1995. New boys and girls start in its intake cottage, and the campus runs its own accredited school. YCC also holds some youth in detention awaiting court. Juvenile records are confidential, so families should contact DJS or YCC directly.

To search for an inmate or juvenile, or to learn how to visit, call, write or send money to someone in the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or Division of Juvenile Services, choose a facility from the list below.