NEWS

September 21, 2007
Be wary of launching prison-building spree.
First, work to reduce inmate populations.

Given all the challenges facing Iowa, it's hard to believe the Democrat-dominated 82nd General Assembly and Gov. Chet Culver will want to be remembered for building a new prison. Yet, some lawmakers seemed convinced of that need after touring the State Penitentiary in Fort Madison this week.

The Department of Corrections has infrastructure needs, to be sure, but the more serious challenge is housing and rehabilitating a growing population of inmates beset with mental illness, drug addictions and health problems.

It would be a mistake for lawmakers to put substantial new resources into prison facilities before working to reduce prison population growth and addressing the physical and mental-health needs of inmates. Otherwise, the state will be building even more new prisons in the future without making an appreciable impact on the lives of convicted criminals before they return to society.

A committee of state lawmakers toured the State Penitentiary Wednesday, just three days after the Board of Corrections voted to seek $290 million from the Legislature for new prison projects, including a new penitentiary and expansion of the women's prison in Mitchellville.

This new interest in prison construction by legislators and state corrections officials follows recommendations of a study of Iowa's correctional system completed in April by prison management and facilities consultants led by the Durrant Group in Des Moines.

The Durrant study was prompted by a dramatic incident in 2005, when two inmates at the Fort Madison Penitentiary slipped away from security guards and made their way over an unguarded wall. Predictably, that incident brought swift calls for a new prison, but to its credit the state ordered up a more comprehensive review of the corrections system's needs.

While the consultants found physical shortcomings in some prison buildings, it also gave the state a long list of critical prison-management issues that need attention, including a shortage of meaningful programs for inmates with mental problems and addictions.

By failing to address those issues, the state fails in its "corrections" mission of reforming criminals so that instead of returning to prison they become productive members of society. Meanwhile, without reforming sentencing laws to steer offenders away from prison, Iowa will continue to see growing inmate populations, despite its low crime rates. This is not coddling criminals but conserving taxpayers' resources while offering the potential of greater safety when inmates who are rehabilitated return to Iowa communities.

Iowa does have prison infrastructure needs. At the very least the Fort Madison prison needs work, and the Mitchellville prison must be enlarged to handle the numbers of female inmates that have grown faster than forecast. But if the state deals just with infrastructure without also reducing inmate populations, it will face an unprecedented prison-building boom in the next decade.

Politicians typically focus on prison buildings rather than prison programs, because the results are easier to see. But those buildings are there forever - parts of the State Penitentiary date to the Civil War era - and they are hugely expensive to operate and staff.

The state is far better off putting the bulk of its energy into reducing the number of inmates in high-security prisons rather than building more of them.

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