Director Colby Braun

North Dakota’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Director Colby Braun received the Charles Colson Advocate of Hope Award an award Sept. 12 for a career spent bringing positive change and hope to the state’s prison system. The Charles Colson Advocate Hope Award, sponsored by the nation’s biggest Christian prison reform advocacy group, Prison Fellowship, recognizes leaders who have taken action to increase the quality of life for incarcerated individuals and those impacted by crime. Director Braun was appointed to his current role in January of this year and has spent over 20 years of dedicated service to the corrections industry. Director Braun’s former roles include manager, operations administrator, transitional facilities director and a warden of two prisons: the North Dakota State Penitentiary and Dakota Women’s Correctional and Rehabilitation Center. 

“I think of this as a community award,” Director Braun said in a statement. “All of us together had to do the work in order to get there. I just so happened to be in the position that I was in to move that along.”