Truth in Sentencing is Essential

Letter: Truth in sentencing is essential

Naomi Bromke of Grand Forks writes about serial offenders who do not serve their full sentences - example being Jesse Wayne Swenson.

As urban crime rises in North Dakota, public safety officials delay building prison capacity, release violent offenders with minimal consequences, and issue lenient sentences that return criminals to the streets. Their optimism about “rehabilitation” prioritizes freeing offenders quickly, leaving victims ignored and unsafe.

Consider the case of Jesse Wayne Swenson, born in 2004. Since 2023, Swenson has pled guilty to a string of crimes, including shoplifting, providing alcohol to minors, aggravated assault, sexual assault, reckless endangerment, and repeated drug possession. Despite violent offenses and multiple failures to appear, he has consistently avoided meaningful incarceration. Felonies are routinely reduced to misdemeanors, sentences are suspended or deferred, and jail time, when imposed at all, amounts to days, not years.

Swenson is repeatedly granted minimal cash bonds, often less than $1,000, which he reliably posts. Courts continue to place him on probation despite clear evidence that he refuses to remain law-abiding. Even new charges in 2025, criminal mischief and simple assault, resulted in another release and further failures to appear.

This revolving door of leniency raises urgent questions. How does Swenson continue to post bail? More importantly, why do judges, fully aware of his violent history and disregard for the law, continue to release him?

North Dakotans deserve better. Until reforms prioritize victims and public safety over a failed rehabilitation-first approach, offenders like Swenson will keep harming law-abiding citizens while victims remain sidelined. Truth in sentencing is not optional. It is essential.

see article here: https://www.inforum.com/opinion/letters/letter-truth-in-sentencing-is-essential