Bigger paychecks for prison workers and a more robust network to handle sex offenders are among Gov. John Hoeven's budget suggestions for North Dakota's prison system.

Hoeven is asking legislators to increase the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's budget by more than $20 million, to $132.9 million over two years. The sum includes $3.6 million in bonds to finance prison construction projects.

The increase would pay for tougher sentences and increased monitoring for sex offenders, proposals that came from a series of task force meetings Hoeven held around the state after the abduction and killing of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin.

Hoeven gave his budget recommendations to lawmakers on Wednesday, the final day of their three-day organizational session. He said eliminating similar crimes may be impossible, but "we can take aggressive steps to make sure that we have done everything possible to prevent it."

Those steps include mandatory probation and genetic testing for everyone who commits a felony sex crime, and 24-hour satellite monitoring of dangerous offenders released to the community.

Hoeven also has proposed stronger sentences, including life prison terms for sex offenses that result in death.

State corrections officials have complained that their workers are paid less than other state employees, making it difficult to keep corrections officers and recruit replacements.

Joe Charvat, a correctional case worker at the State Penitentiary, said many of his co-workers have to take second or third jobs to make ends meet. After nearly seven years, Charvat said he's making less than $2,200 a month - a smaller paycheck than some county jail workers he knows.

"If something doesn't happen this year as far as pay increases, there's going to be a lot of us, myself included, who are going to be gone," he said.

On top of a 4 percent pay increase proposed for state employees, Hoeven is asking for $1 million to boost corrections workers' salaries. That's about a quarter of what corrections officials asked for.

However, the department also is likely to get a large share of another $5 million Hoeven has requested to trim disparities in state paychecks, said Elaine Little, the state corrections director.

"It's important that our employees at least get to where other state employees are," she said.

The new money won't allow the department to hire more corrections officers, but should make it easier to retain current employees, Little said.

Kate Halvorson, another penitentiary case worker, said the proposed raises would help improve morale but probably wouldn't soothe all of the employees' complaints about their paychecks.

"Something's better than nothing," Halvorson said.

The state women's prison in the town of New England would get a raise of about $2.1 million in Hoeven's budget.

The prison has been the target of criticism in the past year for failing to meet deadlines for moving inmates from a state prison in Jamestown, but Hoeven called the county-owned facility part of a "new approach" to state prisons.

"We've been supportive of this all the way through," he said. "We think this is a model that can work well."

The state prison system currently has about 1,300 inmates in various lockups and prerelease centers. That number is predicted to grow by about 5.5 percent in the next two years.

Little said additional money to pay for drug treatment programs should help her agency keep inmate growth from expanding too rapidly.