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North Dakota's county jails and state prisons have been bursting at the seams. Elected leaders are calling for meaningful solutions, with legal voices watching in the wings.

Last fall, the state Department of Corrections began using an admissions system likened to a "wait list"because prisons for men were over capacity, and overflow beds in county jails were also full.

In this week's State of the State address, Governor Kelly Armstrong outlined ideas, including more funding for support services for those involved with the criminal-justice system.

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Travis Finck, who oversees the state's public defenders as executive director of the North Dakota Commission on Legal Counsel for Indigents, said overcrowding poses risks for his team's clients.

"A lot of our clients are held pretrial because they're not able to post any sort of bond or bail amount," he said, "and with the process sometimes being delayed, they are sitting in county jail and not receiving the level of programming that's available at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation."

That roadblock to rehabilitation also can happen after a client is sentenced. Finck agreed with the governor that North Dakota can't just simply add more beds. He said the state has to increase funding for public defenders, arguing there's too much staff turnover, creating continuity issues for clients as their cases proceed.

National groups such as the Rural Democracy Initiative have called for innovation, arguing that jail overcrowding is a big problem in smaller communities, draining local resources.

Meanwhile, Jen Lee, executive director of Legal Services of North Dakota - which helps low-income people in civil cases - said she was encouraged to hear the governor talk about wrap-around issues, such as child care and filling workforce shortages.

"A lot of our clients who are trying to work their way through any kind of legal issue, whether it's a custody battle or a debt or bankruptcy issue that often impacts their ability to be in the workforce fully," she said. "And so, when we solve those problems, they are able to be productive members of the workforce."

Potentially complicating reform efforts is the state attorney general's expected push for a mandatory minimum sentence law. He has argued too many people convicted of violent crimes aren't incarcerated long enough.

Finck said alternative thinking shouldn't be viewed as a lax approach.

"Being smart on crime is not being soft on crime," he said.

He echoed the phrase used by the governor in this week's speech. Finck said he feels the state should build on some of the reform efforts from the past few years as it tries to balance public-safety needs.