NEWS

November 11, 2010
Taxpayer bill at Fort Madison prison: $40,598 per inmate annually

Housing convicts in Iowa’s prison system isn’t cheap, according to a new report by the Iowa Legislative Services Agency. At the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison, where the state’s most dangerous inmates are incarcerated, the annual cost per prisoner during the past fiscal year was $40,598 each.

The average daily population was 1,055 offenders. Ground was broken earlier this year on a new Fort Madison maximum-security prison that will cost about $131 million. Work has also begun on a $68 million expansion and renovation project at the Mitchellville state women’s prison.

State appropriations to the Iowa Department of Corrections represent about 6.2 percent of the state’s overall general fund budget, the report said. Total appropriations to the department, including general funds and federal stimulus money, for operating costs during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010, were $342.7 million.

Of that amount, $258.2 million, or 75.3 percent, was for the prison system; $77 million, or 22.5 percent, was for community corrections; and $7.5 million, or 2.2 percent, was for central office administration in Des Moines. Personnel costs are approximately 80 percent of the budget in any given year, and about 55 percent of the costs are related to security staff, the report said.

Security staff as a percent of overall staff varies across the prison system depends on the security level. Fort Madison has the most security staff as a percentage of payroll, while the Oakdale prison, which is within the Coralville city limits, has the least. Management of overtime costs is a significant variable for cost containment, said the legislative agency’s report. The department continues to monitor overtime with the goal of no more than 2 percent of total payroll costs.

The department reviews critical incident reports daily with the goal of providing a safe and secure environment for inmates and staff. Iowa’s prison population has been trending upward, the report noted. On Sept. 29, 2009, Iowa’s prisons held 8,384 offenders. On Sept. 29, 2010, the prison population totaled 8,730. A state prison population forecast projects a growth of 5 percent over the next decade.

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