More than 300 beds at North Dakota's state prison could be kept as part of a remodeling and expansion project that can be squeezed onto land near the penitentiary, a consultant says.

The location is one of five potential sites for a new or remodeled prison being studied by the Legislature's interim Correctional Facility Review Committee. The project would include a new minimum-security prison just outside the penitentiary's fenced area, which would replace the Missouri River Correctional Center in southwest Bismarck.

Other potential sites are located near the city landfill, the Missouri River Correctional Center, the airport, and about 1,400 acres of land in Morton County west of Mandan. The Mandan location is near the state Youth Correctional Center, a juvenile facility, and is known as Sunny Farm.

The committee has hired a consulting firm to spearhead the project, which is scheduled to present construction and operating cost estimates for each option by mid-February.

Rep. Chet Pollert, R-Carrington, the committee's chairman, said he hoped the panel would make a final recommendation by early April. The Legislature will consider the committee's work later.

The main penitentiary has about 550 beds. Jeff Buck, a principal with DMJM Design of Orange, Calif., said during a committee meeting Wednesday that 331 beds could be used as part of a remodeled and expanded prison. It would be built on the existing prison site.

The new prison facilities, wherever they are located, will be expected to hold slightly more than 1,000 inmates. The existing prison and the Missouri River Correctional Center now have about 700 beds.

Two corrections officers told committee lawmakers on Tuesday that prison improvements are sorely needed to provide a safer workplace for guards to handle dangerous inmates.

"Part of public perception is that we are building new buildings, or a whole new prison, to make a nicer place for inmates to live," Capt. Jeff Wolf said. "We really need to educate them that we are building new buildings to make the public safer."