Mandan and Morton County commissions are showing interest in expansion plans for the Bismarck Transition Center, which could ease pressures on local lock-ups by freeing beds for higher-risk inmates.

Community Counseling and Correctional Services Inc., a Butte, Mont., private company started in 1983, opened the Bismarck Transition Center in 2002, providing a program to ease selected male prisoners back into the community and relieve overcrowding conditions in the prison system. CCCS Chief Executive Officer Mike Thatcher met with the Mandan City Commission and Morton County Commission on Tuesday to inform them of plans for an 88-bed expansion of the Bismarck Transition Center.

Marcy Comny Fisher, director of the Bismarck Transition Center, says CCCS has only had a contract with the state, but plans are to open the facility to Bismarck, Mandan, Burleigh and Morton jurisdictions. Not only are plans to expand the physical facility, but additional programs will be offered including work release and counseling programs. CCCS offers programs such as urinalysis, education for juvenile offenders and drug counseling.

Next week the center, located at 2001 Lee Ave. in southeast Bismarck, will canvass the property owners around it to see if they have any concerns about the proposed expansion, Fisher says. The canvass will include property owners on either side of Airport Drive and in the platted area where the facility resides.

CCCS has nine facilities, the majority located in Montana. It has 330 employees and will expand that number to more than 400 in the next 12 months, Thatcher said. The Bismarck center has 63 beds, 30 employees and an annual payroll of $805,000.

"Mandan and Morton have jail space problems. The state uses the center for general placement, and we're looking to respond with 48 beds. Another 40 beds will be available to local jurisdictions," Thatcher said. "This is not suggested to replace the 32-bed jail you now have. This is an alternative for non-violent low risk offenders. It can free up room for high-risk offenders. We will consider low-risk felons, but we will not take sex offenders.

"We would allow you to put someone at the center for a day or up to a year," Thatcher said. "We anticipate putting $1.7 million and have lined up investors who will put capital into it. How we recover our costs is the per-day rate, what we assess per day. We've been looked at $42 to $47 a day, but there are some economies of scale, and we are prepared to offer $40 a day."

In some cases the inmates themselves pay for staying at the center, Fisher said, specifically those in the work release program.

"The work release program is important, both to the individual and the community," Thatcher said. "It can keep the offender self-sustaining, meeting his obligations. In some cases it allows him to keep his job and pay restitution. But we have to keep a staff around the clock and physically check on him where he's working."

Fisher says the expansion project is still in the process of being reviewed by the Bismarck Planning and Zoning Commission. Hopes are to have the city's approval by the end of July or in August, and have the new beds available by spring of 2006.

The Mandan City Commission approved a motion to have City Administrator Jim Neubauer, Police Chief Dennis Rohr and City Attorney Sharon Gallagher meet with CCCS officials and begin negotiations for services.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@bismarcktribune.com.)