news - iowa state penitentiary AND MORE...

To bring you up-to-date news on the criminal justice system, Prison Terminal is linking to The Crime Report. Designed for those who want to probe beyond the daily crime headlines and political rhetoric, it is the nation’s only comprehensive guide to all facets of the criminal justice system.

Specific news on the Iowa prison system will still be posted on this page, when news occurs. So please visit this page from time to time for breaking news on the Iowa State Penitentiary and other related news!

OCTOBER - 2011

10/17/2011

Prison safety not just about guards
Inmates deserve protection, too, so they aren't driven into gangs In June 2009, there were 8,454 inmates in Iowa prisons and 3,064 people worked in the institutions. Two years later, there are 333 more offenders and 336 fewer employees. The numbers alone raise red flags. But the stories being told by prison staff are cause for alarm. The union representing those workers says the understaffing puts employees, prisoners and the public at risk.

Prison employees seek safer work environment
It is said there is safety in numbers, but for Daniel Homan and other representatives of the AFSCME union, the numbers aren't adding up right. Homan is the president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Iowa. He spoke at a press conference Friday afternoon at Willow Patch, south of the Iowa State Penitentiary, addressing the concerns of ISP prison staff about the shortage of workers, the lack of follow through on approved hiring and the safety issues that concern the staff as well as a number of the offenders.

Making their case for more help
Iowa State Penitentiary correctional officers say, ‘Enough is enough’ Correctional guards from the Iowa State Penitentiary say staffing levels are too low for a safe working environment. About 50 employees and supporters rallied outside of the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison Friday afternoon.

10/14/2011

State correctional workers protest staffing levels
Union claims state not filling positions “Enough is enough” was the theme Friday as members of the American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) complained that state correctional officials are ignoring a legislative directive to add more prison staff. Several dozen people rallied outside the gates of the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison, claiming state prisons are becoming even more dangerous places to work

10/11/2011

New $130M Iowa Prison Taking Shape
Officials building the new Iowa State Penitentiary told the Keokuk Daily Gate newspaper that the project is on schedule.Most of the project is expected to be finished by December of next year and inmates could move in as early as 2014, state officials told the newspaper.The Daily Gate said officials report that the dry weather over the summer was beneficial to the construction, but the contractors are staying with the target dates laid out at the start of construction.

10/05/2011

Culver-Stockton students get chance to see prison conditions first-hand
Nearly a dozen students from Culver-Stockton College recently toured the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. The students are enrolled in the college's "Corrections" course and were given the opportunity to step outside the classroom and see for themselves what life is like in a maximum-security state prison.

Geriatric Prisoner Release Plan Weighed To Ease Budget Woes
At a small table inside a prison geriatric center in Huntsville, convicted murderers Clarence Leroy Brown, 75, and George White, 67, play dominoes as another inmate slowly shuffles by, pushing an IV pole. A gaunt inmate with a catheter bag passes by in a wheelchair.

10/04/2011
Fraise reflects on 25 years in office
Dissatisfaction with board of supervisors prompted him to seek political job. Being told he should do something about what was making him upset set off state Sen. Gene Fraise’s 30-year political career, which will come to an end after next year because he isn’t seeking re-election to the Iowa Senate.

10/02/2011
Mississippi Freeing 89 terminally ill inmates saved $5M
Releasing 89 terminally ill inmates has saved Mississippi about $5 million over seven years, corrections officials say. About $3.8 million of the savings was in medical costs and the rest was the cost of incarceration, The Clarion-Ledger reported.

SEPTEMBER - 2011

AUGUST - 2011

08/19/2011
In California, Victims’ Families Fight for the Dead
The other day, at the sprawling state prison here, Linda and Alfred Tay sat in a cramped, windowless room, just feet from the man serving time for murdering their son. They listened as the inmate made his case for parole.

08/09/2011

Iowa Prison Correspondence Goes Electronic for Prisoners
Both prisoners and their contacts must pay 25 cents to send an email, Tassone said. The email system provider gets 14 cents, and the prisons get 11 cents. From July 2010 to June, the state brought in $16,235 from the email system, all of which went back into providing the service.

08/08/2011
Bike buffs help keep rehab program rolling
Now that the wheels are back on an Iowa State Penitentiary bicycle program, a Keokuk businessman got the nod from his former bike repair partner to help keep the wheels turning.

JULY - 2011

07/13/2011
Perfect storm for Iowa prisons needs immediate attention
Are Iowa’s prisons understaffed? Yes, but the 40 new positions are enough to handle the problem. Yes; the state government needs to take more action. No, there are enough workers, and we can’t afford any more. Corrections officers throughout the nine state prisons in Iowa are concerned about the safety and security of institution workers, prisoners, and the public.

07/11/2011
Iowa inmate, 74, dies in prison
Authorities said Monday that a 74-year-old sex offender died at the Iowa State Penitentiary medical unit in Fort Madison. A state news release said Jack Franks was found unresponsive, without a pulse or heartbeat. The release said that because Franks had signed a do-not-resuscitate order, no attempt to revive him was made.

07/05/2011
Many Prison Officers in Eastern Iowa “Don’t Feel Safe”
Prison guards at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville listen to a press conference held by local union leaders to stress the need for more prison guards at all of Iowa's prison facilities. According to Hathaway, 59 positions have been cut over the last two years, leading to concerns about overall prison safety.

07/01/2011
California given strict deadline to reduce prison population
There must be 37,000 fewer inmates by June 2013, starting with a reduction of 14,400 by the end of this year, three-judge panel says. A three-judge court that has ordered California to reduce its prison population issued strict deadlines Thursday for what will amount to a reduction of 37,000 inmates in two years.

JUNE - 2011

06/29/2011
Penitentiary inmate commits suicide in cell
David W. Penwell, an inmate assigned to Iowa State Penitentiary Cellhouse 318 was discovered unresponsive at 4 a.m.. in the assigned cell during routine cellhouse check of the general population living unit. Officers discovered Penwell’s body hanging with a shoelace wrapped around its neck and tied to the top of the cell door bars, according Fred Scaletta for the Iowa Department of Corrections.

06/24/2011
Public finds out more about new penitentiary slated to open in 2013
Rebecca Bowker, executive officer at Iowa State Penitentiary, shows the layout of the new Iowa State Penitentiary being built where Prison Farm 1 once stood on the north side of Fort Madison. Prison officials held a public forum Thursday to discuss the new prison.

06/20/2011
ISP to hold town hall about new facility
Walls are going up at the new Iowa State Penitentiary just off of 330th Avenue where the prison’s Farm 1 used to be located. The walls of the new facility are taking shape. The exterior of the buildings should be completed by Dec. 2012. The new state-of-the-art facility is being built where ISP's Farm One used to be located on top of Burlington Hill.

06/15/2011
Calif. convict wins state's first medical parole
A man who has served less than four years of his 68-year prison sentence for a violent robbery has become the first person in California granted parole under a new law authorizing the release of medically incapacitated inmates.

06/03/2011
Iowa prison system faces overcrowding
Iowa’s prison system is overcrowded, but there’s no worry of any court-ordered “de-population” action similar to what recently occurred in California where the release of nearly 40,000 prisoners could occur, a state attorney told the state Board of Corrections.

06/02/2011
Reforms Needed for Compassionate Release of Prison Inmates
The nation’s system of freeing some terminally ill prisoners on grounds of compassionate release is so riddled with medical flaws and procedural barriers that many potentially medically eligible inmates are dying behind bars, say UCSF researchers in a new study.

MAY - 2011

05/25/2011
To Reduce Prison Population, Stop Denying Employment
The US Supreme Court this week upheld a 3-judge federal court order requiring California to significantly reduce its prison population in two years. California will not have to let any inmates out early to achieve this reduction – but it will need to slow the rate of putting people back in.

05/24/2011
California officials hold 1st 'medical parole' hearing for convicted rapist
California takes a small step toward reducing its inmate population and prison costs today. Prison officials will consider whether to grant “medical parole” to a paralyzed inmate.

05/23/2011
High court orders drastic prison population reduction in California
The Supreme Court has affirmed a federal order telling California to reduce its overflowing prison population, a situation the majority said “falls below the standard of decency.”

05/18/2011
Despite Moves to Private Prisons, They May Cost Even More
More than 30 states use private prisons for some inmates but data in Arizona suggest that privately operated prisons can cost more to operate than state-run prisons, even though they often steer clear of the sickest, costliest inmates, the New York Times reports. Florida and Ohio are planning major shifts toward private prisons, and Arizona is expected to sign deals doubling its private-inmate population.

05/16/2011
A growing burden As more elderly prisoners serve time
A growing population of elderly inmates is driving up prison medical care costs to the point that some Texas lawmakers would like to see more of those who are feeble and chronically ill released early. In the last decade, the number of inmates 55 and older has spiked as much as 8 percent each year, growing to about 12,500, while the general inmate population has remained fairly flat.

05/15/2011
CA Start Considering Medical Paroles To Save Inmate Health Costs
Steven Martinez, convicted of multiple 1998 felonies, was stabbed in the neck in prison, leaving him paralyzed and unable to perform even simple tasks. Next week, says the San Francisco Chronicle, the 42-year-old quadriplegic whose annual medical bills average $625,000. will be the first inmate considered for release under the state's new medical parole law.

05/06/2011
Calif. prison medical receiver defends system
A court-appointed receiver who controls medical care in California prisons said Thursday a report criticizing the quality of inmate treatment is outdated and does not reflect recent improvements. The prison system‘s independent inspector general reported earlier this week that just nine of the 33 adult prisons met minimum health care standards, even after taxpayers spent billions of dollars to improve treatment.

05/04/2011
Report: Inmate health care remains poor in Calif.
Medical care remains below acceptable levels in more than two-thirds of California state prisonsdespite the billions of dollars spent by taxpayers, the prison system’s independent inspector said in a report Wednesday.

APRIL - 2011

04/30/2011
California Prison Academy: Better Than a Harvard Degree
Prison guards can retire at the age of 55 and earn 85% of their final year's salary for the rest of their lives. They also continue to receive medical benefits. Roughly 2,000 students have to decide by Sunday whether to accept a spot at Harvard. Here's some advice: Forget Harvard. If you want to earn big bucks and retire young, you're better off becoming a California prison guard.

04/26/2011
Prison officials confirm discovery of homemade weapons at Anamosa facility
State corrections officials Tuesday confirmed that three homemade knives and two partially made “zip guns” were discovered last week concealed in a common area of the yard at the Anamosa State Penitentiary.

04/17/2011
Older inmate population grows, puts strain on system
One hundred ninety-two-year-old Auburn Correctional Facility is graying, and it’s not just the weather-worn stone walls. In New York as across the country, the inmate population is aging rapidly. The trend mirrors what’s happening among the country’s free population and creates many of the same fiscal dilemmas due to rising health care costs.

04/16/2011
Research Finds Excessive Prison Phone Rates Exploit Prisoners’ Families
Prison Legal News (PLN), a monthly publication that covers criminal justice-related issues, released a report this past weekend at the National Conference for Media Reform in Boston that examines prison phone rates nationwide.

04/05/2011
Supplemental money needed to keep current staff
The head of Iowa's prison system said Monday he would like to see the $14 million in supplemental money earmarked to his agency yet this fiscal year sooner rather than later.

As Iowa’s prisons near record 9,000 inmates, union leader worries about safety Iowa’s prisons are on the verge of exceeding 9,000 inmates for the first time ever, prompting worries about safety issues as state officials grapple with a tight budget that leave little room for adding more correctional officers.

04/02/2011
California shrinks its prisons, but overcrowding persists
Eighteen months ago, the gymnasium at the state prison here was not a gymnasium at all. It was a makeshift dormitory, housing 250 felons in triple bunk beds stretching from one end of the concrete floor to the other.

Fort Madison prison put on lockdown
Officials say the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison was placed on lockdown Friday morning after an inmate stabbed a fellow prisoner.

MARCH - 2011

03/31/2011
Convicted killer seeks parole
Etheridge Leon “Bill” Carter, 85, convicted in 1994 of killing his wife Shirley Matthews Carter, is asking to be released from prison due to a terminal illness. He goes before the parole board on April 6. Laurie Matthews Brown Endsley of Heber Springs, the daughter of the shooting victim, said she fears for her life if Carter is released. “He’s proven to be dangerous, and he has made threats to me when he gets out,” she said. “We’ll have a predator in this county if he comes back here.”

03/24/2011
Book looks at Iowa’s 46 executions
When the new Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison opens in July 2013, it will replace the massive mortar and stone structure that by then will have loomed over the river city for 174 years.

03/21/2011
Formerly Incarcerated & Convicted Peoples Movement Arises!
Alabama represents the answer to a clarion call. This is a call that speaks to us in our own voice; clear, loud and urgent. A voice that speaks to our identity and emanates from the soul, ringing true both in the head and the heart. Our objective is a collective one, continuing in that vein, as we gathered fifty people from across the nation to engage in a conversation about the need to build a Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted Peoples Movement.

03/15/2011
The Officer's Code
Why you should be a better mentor Pro-social role modeling, in the same way it affects the inmates we are charged with keeping, also affects the officers and other staff members that we come into contact with

03/13/2011
Supreme Court decision on sentencing guidelines gives judges more leeway
Jason Pepper, a former meth addict and drug dealer from the heartland, says he got lucky when he was finally arrested. A sympathetic judge gave him a fraction of the prison time he could have received and, more importantly, sent him to a place where he got extensive drug treatment.

03/08/2011
Study finds most nursing homes hire employees with criminal convictions
Keeping the peace on a rainy night Almost all nursing homes employ at least one person with a criminal conviction in his or her background, according to report released last week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Connecticut is among several states that don't require these facilities to perform criminal background checks on employees.

03/09/2011
State Budget Battles Converge on Prison Labor Force
Prison isn't just about doing hard time. For many, it's about working full-time, too. These days, state governments seem ready to squeeze their captive workforces to plug budget gaps on the cheap.

03/07/2011
Iowa courts struggling with application of U.S. Supreme Court ruling
The walk to the third floor of the Scott County Courthouse is a study in stark contrasts. From the first push from the outside, through a door adorned with black text on white paper and down marble hallways the color of eggshell flecked with black, there is no denying that this is a place of light and dark, right and wrong.

FEBRUARY - 2011

02/11/2011
The High Cost Of Medical Care for California 3-Strikes Inmates
He doesn't know who he is, or where he is," Dr. Joseph Bick told Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Morain about an inmate at California's Vacaville state prison. The inmate, now 85, arrived at the facility in 1996, sentenced to 25 years to life in prison under this state's "three-strikes" law. He is a sex offender with 25 criminal cases against him.

02/10/2011
Texas House budget writers urge prisons to release more feeble inmates
Texas’ corrections chiefs should consider freeing more feeble inmates and quit holding them until they die, some House budget writers said Thursday. Legislative budget staff members have criticized current practices, saying they sock taxpayers with huge costs for gravely disabled and geriatric inmates’ medical care in prison.

02/01/2011
At End-Of-The Line Prison, An Unlikely Escape
Rick Smith and Grady Bankhead, who participated in the meditation program, are serving sentences of life without parole for capital murder. "We have to have some kind of balance back in our lives from the horrible things that we've done," Bankhead says.

JANUARY - 2011

01/30/2011
Inmate health care is a budget buster
Demands for medical and dental care are straining jails as never before, and sheriffs are looking for answers

01/27/2011
Lawmakers express frustration over excessive outlays for prison health
Inmate medical care is budgeted at $1.5 billion for this year. A federal overseer recommends early release of chronically ill inmates as a way to cut costs.

01/24/2011
State penitentiary locked down after stabbing
The Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison remains under lockdown status after an incident that sent one inmate to the hospital with serious injuries last Friday morning. State Pen spokesperson Rebecca Bowker identifies the two inmates involved in the incident as 44-year-old David Lenox and 23-year-old Christopher Langley.

01/19/2011
Psychological Morbidity in Patients and their Relatives after Severe COPD
A growing number of studies have focused on the psychological burden of advanced disease. A recently published study in Critical Care Medicine evaluated the psychological burden in patients with COPD and their caregivers after an ICU stay.

01/17/2011
Indiana’s Answer to Prison Costs Editorial
For states that are serious about trimming deficits, out-of-control prison costs are a good place to start cutting. The expenses of housing and caring for more than one million state prison inmates has quadrupled in the last decade from about $12 billion a year to more $52 billion a year. This, in turn, has squeezed budgets for essential programs like education.

01/14/2011
Abused woman, convicted of 1981 Davenport murder, could get a second chance
Twenty-eight years ago, police found Mark Webb dead in his first-floor apartment in Davenport, kneeling against a bed with a bathrobe on and a pool of blood surrounding him.

Inmate group honors veterans/ISP officers for their work
It takes a lot to write a blank check to Uncle Sam and possibly be sent off to fight against hostile forces. There’s the possibility of not coming home. Some people have done that, come home, made some mistakes and have ended up in the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

01/05/2011
Guarding Grandpa Illinois is spending money it doesn't have to keep convicts who can barely walk behind bars.
Bill Heirens, infamous as Chicago's "Lipstick Killer," is the longest-serving inmate in the Illinois prison system. He's been behind bars since the age of 17, when he confessed to three gruesome murders that dominated the news headlines throughout the summer of '46.

01/03/2011
Fraise: Legislature to focus on budget
The budget is going to be the main focus on the Senate side of the Iowa Legislature when it comes into session on Jan. 10. State Sen. Gene Fraise, D-Fort Madison, said the budget isn’t as bad off as the Legislature thought it would be at the end of the last year.

An officer’s responsibility to rehabilitation
I hear this statement from fellow officers all the time: “Rehabilitation doesn’t work.” Those who say it, all of whom are intelligent corrections professionals, cite numerous reasons. Some point to the astronomical recidivism rate.

DECEMBER - 2010

12/28/2010
Groundbreaking for new penitentiary rated one of top news stories this year
The new Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison may be substantially complete a year from now. A groundbreaking for the $130 million structure was held April 22, with Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, state legislators Gene Fraise and Jerry Kearns, Department of Correction Director John Baldwin and Ryan Drew, vice president of Southeast Iowa Trades, in attendance.

12/22/2010
Tactical response unit has grown
A group of law enforcement officers in Lee County is training together as a multi-force tactical response unit. The unit got its start in Fort Madison and extended the opportunity to participate to the Keokuk Police Department.

12/17/2010
Gov. Culver: Statement on Master Builders of Iowa requests
Master Builders of Iowa lost two efforts to block awarding a contract for construction of the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. The first was in Iowa district court when the judge dismissed the case because Master Builders had not completed its appeal process to an Administrative Law Judge.

12/16/2010
Corrections director retained
Iowa Corrections Director John Baldwin, who will be retained by Gov.-elect Terry Branstad, says he doesn't anticipate building any additional state prisons, and he hopes to limit increases in the inmate population. Branstad announced Wednesday he plans to keep Baldwin on staff.

12/10/2010
City employees find meth-making items
Some Fort Madison Parks Department employees received some training at the Iowa State Penitentiary on Thursday to learn what to do if items suspected of being used to make methamphetamine are found in city-owned areas.

12/05/2010
Hospice program teaches convicts how to care
Within the walls of Angola State Penitentiary, there are an estimated 5,200 inmates. More than 95 percent of them will die there. Angola has a hospice program that is a part of the rehabilitation treatment offered to inmates.

12/01/2010
Iowa prison remains on lockdown after stabbings
A state prison official says the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison remains locked down after four inmates were stabbed. The lockdown at the maximum security prison was ordered after the stabbings on Tuesday.

NOVEMBER - 2010

11/18/2010
Chicago builder to keep Fort Madison prison project
An administrative law judge has upheld a decision by state officials to award a $116.9 million contract to a Chicago construction firm to build a new state prison in Fort Madison.

11/15/2010
GED grads say prison program has changed their lives
It was a testament that hard work can be completed even in the most restricting and dangerous of environments, as 19 Iowa State Penitentiary offenders received their GED diplomas Wednesday.

11/11/2010
Roses & Thistles: Thistles wilt with the advance of winter
A rose to 13 Iowa State Penitentiary inmates who were awarded high school equivalency diplomas last week. A rose, too, to prison officials and others who make it possible for inmates to learn behind bars.

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.

OCTOBER - 2010

10/21/2010
ISP offenders form choir
Seven Iowa State Penitentiary offenders recently preformed for staff and others as part of a multiple denomination choir called "The Voices of Praise". The vocal group is the newest opportunity for ISP offenders to make positive change in their lives by focusing on the therapeutic effects of singing.

10/19/2010
What should be done with old Fort Madison prison?
What will become of the main part of the Iowa State Penitentiary when the inmates are moved to the new prison? No one has a clear answer yet. The oldest parts of the prison are not going to be used for anything in the near future, according to Rebecca Bowker, executive officer at the prison.

SEPTEMBER - 2010

09/17/2010
New prison outlined at RAP Breakfast
Rebecca Bowker of the Iowa State Penitentiary Thursday wowed a crowd of business people at the Keokuk Area Chamber of Commerce Recognition, Appreciation and Participation Breakfast.

09/08/2010
Despite Heavy Rain, New Prison on Track
Despite a rainy year, work is ahead of schedule on a new $130 million maximum-security prison in southeast Iowa, a prison spokeswoman said. The new prison near Fort Madison will replace the Iowa State Penitentiary, which has segments dating back to 1839 -- seven years before Iowa became a state.

JUNE - 2010

06/24/2010
Kentucky transfers prisoners out of CCA Prison
Kentucky has pulled its inmates out of a privately run prison in the eastern part of the state because of what state officials describe as budget concerns, leaving only out-of-state inmates at the facility.

06/22/2010
Court Reverses Appeal of Angola 3's
Albert Woodfox has spent nearly all of the last 38 years in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. His case has brought protests from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who argue that Woodfox's decades in lockdown constitute torture, and from a growing band of supporters, who believe that he was denied a fair trial.

06/21/2010
Privatization sought for Ohio prisons
At least half of Ohio's 31 prisons could be privately operated, under legislation recently introduced by two state senators. Republican State Sens. Bill Seitz of Green Township and Timothy Grendell of Chesterland proposed legislation to create a new 15-member Prison Privatization Commission.

06/15/2010
Solitary Watch: No Evidence of National Reduction in Solitary Confienment
An article in yesterday’s USA Today suggests that there’s been a widespread reduction in the use of solitary confinement in state prisons. Its author, Kevin Johnson, has done excellent reporting on solitary confinement in the past.

06/10/2010
St. Francis House in Boston A MAP For Getting Well
“It’s a lot cheaper and safer to help people pull it together, then toss them onto the street or into prison!” — Fred Smith, MAP founder “What you’re seeing is ‘the look,’” Fred Smith explains. “The people on the sidewalk outside this building have survived some of the toughest lives imaginable.” It’s lunchtime at St. Francis House on Boylston Street, the epicenter of downtown Boston. A large and regular crowd gathers for the breakfast and lunch that is served to about a thousand people, 365 days a year.

06/05/2010
Buried in the Bureau of Prisons
Imagine a country in which prisoners can be denied visits, and even telephone calls, with family members for years at a time. Imagine a country in which government officials can prevent prisoners from telling news reporters about mistreatment or abuse. Imagine a country in which prisoners who are foreign citizens can be denied their right, guaranteed by international treaty, to meet with consular officials from their nation of origin. Unfortunately, that country is not some totalitarian state in the 1950s, but the United States in 2010.

Dyng Inside: Elderly in Prison - video
The US' massive prison population is getting older. Long sentences that were handed out decades ago are catching up with the American justice system. Prisons across the country are dedicating entire units just to house the elderly. During difficult economic times, the issue has hit a crisis point. Estimates are that locking up an older inmate costs three times as much as a younger one. How are prisons dealing with this issue? Who are the prisoners that are turning gray behind bars? Josh Rushing gains exclusive and unprecedented access to jails and prisons across the country to tell the story.

06/03/2010
Dying on the State's Dime
A gaunt old man, thick with whiskers and stricken with dementia, writhes under the covers of his bed. Down the hall, doctors monitor elderly diabetics with recently amputated limbs, medicate terminal cancer patients shuffling by with walkers and tether shivering dialysis patients to blood-cleaning machines.

06/02/2010
California struggles to pay for social services
As for its poorest residents, it spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on health care for a small group of sick inmates - in one case $1 million during a dying inmate's final year, according to a state audit released Tuesday. The state also spends billions of extra dollars on the longer sentences handed down under the state's "three strikes" law in part because those inmates age in prison and need health care, the report by State Auditor Elaine Howle found.

06/01/2010
The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration
The United States currently incarcerates a higher share of its population than any other country in the world. We calculate that a reduction in incarceration rates just to the level we had in 1993 (which was already high by historical standards) would lower correctional expenditures by $16.9 billion per year, with the large majority of these savings accruing to financially squeezed state and local governments. As a group, state governments could save $7.6 billion, while local governments could save $7.2 billion.

MAY - 2010

05/29/2010
More programs, fewer beds could help prisons' bottom line
During an initial round of budget cuts for many state agencies this month, the Texas prison system took a lesser hit. On Friday, though, state leaders directed agencies — including the prison system — to propose an additional 10 percent in cuts that may be necessary to balance the budget when the Legislature reconvenes next year. How to do that without cutting programs? Consider closing a prison or two.

05/19/2010
Financial Impact of Health Care for Prisoners Who Are Ill and Three Strikes
As California struggles to pay for social services for its poorest residents, it spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on health care for a small group of sick inmates - in one case $1 million during a dying inmate's final year, according to a state audit released Tuesday.

05/16/2010
Michigan warden tapped for ISP job
The head of Iowa's prison system plans to name a Michigan warden as warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. Corrections Director John Baldwin on Friday said he will appoint Nick Ludwick to replace John Ault, who's retiring next month. Baldwin will recommend Ludwick's appointment to the corrections board at next week's meeting in Iowa City.

05/15/2010
For profit "Christian" prison proposed!
A private firm proposing a prison in Wakita with all born-again Christian staff and programming does not yet have the commitments for prisoners it needs to begin construction. Bill Robinson, the founder of Corrections Concepts Inc., a Dallas nonprofit prison ministry that is leading the proposal, said the bonding company that is financing the project will not release funds to begin construction until states or other jurisdictions have agreed to send 285 prisoners to the 624-bed facility.

05/10/2010
Norway Builds the World's Most Humane Prison
By the time the trumpets sound, the candles have been lit and the salmon platters garnished. Harald V, King of Norway, enters the room, and 200 guests stand to greet him. Then a chorus of 30 men and women, each wearing a blue police uniform, launches into a spirited rendition of "We Are the World." This isn't cabaret night at Oslo's Royal Palace. It's a gala to inaugurate Halden Fengsel, Norway's newest prison.

May 10, 2010
Life Behind Bars at the Iowa State Penitentiary
For more than 170 years the Iowa State Penitentiary has housed Iowa's most violent offenders. Soon, it will be replaced by a new prison. That has some inmates on edge, wondering what life will be like inside the new prison. The 40 foot walls of the Iowa State Penitentiary span 20 acres. About half of the offenders inside will never walk out. Dennis Lamar became inmate 0202806 on May 7, 1986.

05/04/2010
Can a new prison save a town?
Wanda Leung sits at her restaurant's cash register, flipping through a newspaper. It's lunchtime, but the turquoise stools at the counter are empty. Drought has stripped the area of farm jobs. Men in cowboy hats wander the dusty streets looking for work. Every month, Leung takes $1,000 out of her bank account to pay the bills and keep her Lucky Restaurant open.

05/03/2010
Indiana bars extended family from seeing more than 1 prisoner
When Sam Dickens' son went to prison earlier this year, the father didn't think he'd have any problem visiting him at Westville Correctional facility. After all, Dickens' nephew is also an inmate in an Indiana prison, and Dickens has been visiting the young man for years.

05/01/2010
Doing time on their own dime
More states charge inmates for stays in jail, prison. As the economic downturn worsens and states grapple with large budget deficits, many inmates may find themselves paying for their crimes beyond just doing standard jail time.

Prison Health News Relaunched
Prison Health News, founded in 2001, is a quarterly newsletter written by and for people who have been in prison or are currently living behind the walls. Spanning topics on medical updates, health care advocacy tips and mutual support, Prison Health News works to build community across the prison walls that divide us.

APRIL - 2010

04/27/2010
Jail to Go With Post Card Only Mail
Citing the time consuming process of sorting mail and the contraband sometimes found in envelopes, Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski is following the lead of other Michigan jails and implementing a post card only mail system.

04/26/2010
Prison Hospice Helps Inmates and Care-Givers
Inside prison walls, Gary Rubenstein is facing a death sentence, but one not imposed by a judge or jury. He has terminal lung cancer and has stopped treatment, saving the state expensive end-of-life medical care in a futile attempt to keep him alive. “I said, ‘For what? I’m in prison,’” said Rubenstein. “There’s really no light at the end of my tunnel.” Story reported by KTVU.

04/21/2010
State penitentiary construction set to begin
It has been five years in the making, but construction of a new Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison will kick off Thursday with a groundbreaking ceremony.

04/20/2010
Inmate charged with sexual assault
An Iowa State Penitentiary inmate, who is serving time on a sexual crime, is now facing serious allegations he raped another inmate.

04/15/2010
Deal is at hand
An "agreement in principle" has been struck between local officials on one side and the federal prison receiver and state corrections officials on the other over construction of a massive prison hospital immediately southeast of Stockton.

04/14/2010
How to close a prison and still not save money
SPECIAL REPORT: Why Michigan prison costs keep growing
As Michigan lawmakers negotiate next year's corrections department budget, analysts are perplexed by a persistent conundrum: The state's spending on prisons isn't shrinking, despite recent years' steep cuts in staff and in the inmate population.

04/12/2010
Federal court rejects call for fair wages for prisoners
After renowned attorney J. Tony Serra spent nine months in a federal prison camp for not paying his taxes, he calculated how much he was paid for watering the camp gardens - 19 cents an hour - and thought it might violate a U.N. standard that says inmates should get fair wages.

04/07/2010
Jail and the Census: A Change That Counts Easthampton's Prison Policy
Peter Wagner knows firsthand just how hard it is to get people excited about a topic as seemingly dry and technical as the U.S. Census. As the executive director of the Prison Policy Initiative, a non-partisan research organization in Easthampton, Wagner has spent years trying to get lawmakers and others in positions of influence to pay attention to—and then push to change—one aspect of the complex process by which the Census Bureau counts U.S. residents.

04/01/2010
Prisons see budget boost
Lawmakers approve funds to rehire some counselors, staff. Lawmakers left an additional $23.2 million in the Iowa Department of Corrections' coffers Tuesday when they walked out the doors of the Capitol.

MARCH - 2010

03/29/2010
Millions spent on Ohio's ailing, aging inmates
The Ohio State Penitentiary inmate was rushed to a Youngstown hospital. After nine days and thousands of dollars' worth of care, he was taken to Lucasville and executed. You paid for the whole process, from his 24-hour surveillance when he took the pills to his hospital stay to his lethal injection.

03/22/2010
Health care reform brings expansion of addiction and mental health coverage
In a major victory, ground-breaking expansion of addiction and mental health coverage of prevention, treatment and recovery is a part of the final healthcare reform bill passed on Sunday. The final bill, approved by both chambers of Congress, incorporates many recommendations made by LAC and our partners around addiction and mental health services.

03/16/2010
California prison receiver seeks release of ill inmates
The federal receiver who runs California's prison health care system said Tuesday he will ask state lawmakers to approve four bills to control spiraling costs - including proposals to restrict prisons' use of prescription drugs and outside medical specialists and to parole the sickest and costliest inmates.

03/04/2010
Recidivism rate worse than statistics indicate
Memphis-area study finds 20 years of research discovers 81 percent of former inmates end up back behind bars By Michael Lollar Sunday, March 7, 2010 Jeff Smith had been free of drugs for four years.

03/04/2010
Safety Is Issue as Budget Cuts Free Prisoners
In the rush to save money in grim budgetary times, states nationwide have trimmed their prison populations by expanding parole programs and early releases. But the result more convicted felons on the streets, not behind bars has unleashed a backlash, and state officials now find themselves trying to maneuver between saving money and maintaining the public’s sense of safety.

FEBRUARY - 2010

02/24/2010
CCA Loses Contracts for 7,594 Prison Beds in Past 16 Months
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison company, has lost or terminated contracts totaling 7,594 prison beds within the past 16 months, and is expected to lose at least 3,696 more beds by the end of this calendar year.

02/22/2010
Parole Board Recieves Public Scrutiny After Paroled Killer Kills Again
The sweet-voiced grandmother sat at a table before the Massachusetts Parole Board and said she was not the same woman who killed her sleeping 16-year-old daughter with a shotgun blast on Valentine’s Day in 1990.

Priest banned from prison visits
Father Val Peter said he has had just about enough. The 75-year-old, and one-time director of Boys Town, visits inmates regularly. Tracey Dyess more frequently than most. "The only reason I do this is she reminds me of a Boys Town kid," said Father Peter. "She has no family except a grandma in Texas."

02/18/2010
Ombudsman: Rehab delays for prisoners cost millions
Iowa's prisons have serious problems that are delaying release of inmates into rehabilitation programs and potentially costing taxpayers millions of extra dollars, the state's ombudsman told lawmakers Wednesday.

Show opens with reception Saturday
Once again, art aficionados will get a glimpse of the creative souls imprisoned behind the walls of the Iowa State Penitentiary. The second annual "incarcerated" feature exhibition will grace the walls of the Fort Madison Area Arts Association beginning with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

02/17/2010
Locking Down the Mentally Ill
Solitary Confinement Cells Have Become America’s New Asylums “If you want to know where they are all being kept,” said Todd Winstrom, “they’re down in the hole.”

02/16/2010
Proposed cuts include programs, meds, private prisons
Nearly 3,100 jobs of prison guards, parole officers and other officials would be eliminated, privately run prisons would be closed, highly touted treatment and rehabilitation programs would be cut and medical care would be significantly reduced under a proposed 5-percent budget reduction plan unveiled today.

02/14/2010
Imaginary fiends - Crime in America keeps going down
The year 2009 was a grim one for many Americans, but there was one pleasant surprise amid all the drear: Citizens, though ground down and nerve-racked by the recession, still somehow resisted the urge to rob and kill one another, and they resisted in impressive numbers. Across the country, FBI data show that crime last year fell to lows unseen since the 1960s - part of a long trend that has seen crime fall steeply in the United States since the mid-1990s.

February 06, 2010
No More Shame in Having Prison Connections
For those of you who forget that the incarcerated humans in this country are indeed just that - human - I'd like you to think on this the next time you talk about "inmates, criminals, convicts, etc." These humans have families and those who love them, despite whatever they did. Look around you and wonder, because this is who we are:

02/04/2010
Obama budget includes $527.5M for Justice Dept.
As states cut their budgets by closing prisons and diverting some offenders to probation and treatment programs, the federal government is proposing to dramatically ramp up its detention operations.

02/03/2010
Penn State researchers receive money for new prison study
Penn State researchers making end-of-life care for prison inmates are the focus of a $1.27 million grant. Researchers are using the National Institute of Nursing Research grant to develop a comprehensive toolkit of tailored resources for end-of-life care in prisons, assistant professor of nursing Susan Loeb wrote in an e-mail.

JANUARY - 2010

01/30/2010
Compassionate Release has little effect on early release of sick and dying prisoners
With his swollen legs and a throaty rasp that whistles like a kettle through his broken teeth, Eddie Jones is an unlikely man to make history. He is 89 and dying, a former loan shark who, at 69, shot another man dead on a Harlem street in what he claimed was self-defense. Now he is serving a sentence of 25 years to life in a prison hospital bed in this upstate town, riddled with heart disease and probably cancer, though his doctors are not certain about the cancer because Mr. Jones has refused most every medical test.

01/26/2010
Dungeons & Dragons Prison Ban Upheld
Prisons can restrict the rights of inmates to nerd out, a federal appeals court has found. In an opinion issued on Monday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected the claims in a lawsuit challenging a ban on the game Dungeons & Dragons by the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin.

01/25/2010
PA considers using closed mental hospitals for prisoners State considers plan to transfer prison inmates
Turning closed or partially-used state mental hospitals into state prisons to hold inmates with mental health issues is an idea being kicked around by House lawmakers.

01/21/2010
A proposed new law which would lift the tax exemption on commissaries with a portion of sales tax going localities
This proposed legislation in NY would create just one more way that local rural communities could benefit from the poor who are kept behind the prison walls. See attached proposed Bill. New Yorkers: contact your legislators and ask them to vote against this Bill.

01/20/2010
DOC officials grilled over bad Aramark food
Corrections leaders grilled about prison food. Kentucky lawmakers grilled top corrections officials Wednesday about the quality of meals served in state prisons in seeking to determine what role inmate displeasure with their food might have played in a fiery prison uprising last year.

01/17/2010
Setting compassionate release back
Standing before the parole board in 2006, Edward Corliss presented himself as a frail, meek man who had battled cancer, hepatitis, and alcoholism and overcome the anger and bitterness that led him to kill a store clerk in Salisbury decades before.

01/12/2010
New Site: Solitary Watch From Jim Ridgeway
Readers of Unsilent Generation will know that I’ve written before on prison reform issues, aging behind bars, and the case of the Angola 3, which involves men who have spent decades in solitary confinement. I’ve now launched a new web site, in collaboration with writer and editor Jean Casella, called Solitary Watch News.

01/04/2010
DOCS opens new facility for mentally ill inmates
The first seven men have moved into a new mental health unit at an upstate prison designed to treat inmates with serious mental illnesses and disciplinary problems. The 100-bed residential mental health unit at the male, medium-security Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County was developed by the state Department of Correctional Services and the state Office of Mental Health as a result of a lawsuit involving Disability Advocates, Inc., a nonprofit advocacy organization.

01/04/2010
A Pretty Penny for Prisons
The prison business is proving recession-proof. But is it right to privatize penitentiaries? When Damon Hininger took over as president and CEO of Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America in October, it capped a 17-year journey from his first job with the company as a correctional officer in his hometown of Leavenworth, Kansas.

01/01/2010
Tamms spending questioned
For almost 12 years, Illinois taxpayers have paid one of the highest per-inmate costs in the country to house what the Department of Corrections says are the 250 worst inmates in the state.

DECEMBER - 2009

12/23/2009
Nursing homes with razor wire.
Are elderly prisoners really a threat to public safety?
Sometime in the 1970s, the United States began a love affair with incarceration that continues to this day. After holding nearly steady for decades, our prison population began to climb as criminal justice policy took a sharply punitive turn, with the massive criminalization of drug use, "three strikes" laws and other harsh sentencing practices.

12/15/2009
Extreme overtime puts California's prison health overhaul at risk
California's prisons in 2008 spent $60 million on health care overtime. That doesn't count an additional $111 million in overtime for guards who protect on- and off-site health workers during medical appointments ¬ more than double the amount being spent when the receiver took over."

12/11/2009
The Graying of America’s Prisons: Part Two
Part two of our special report explores the movements in several states to relieve the burdens and tragedy America’s increasingly geriatric prison population. Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, members of the Angola 3, have spent most of the past 37 years in lockdown in Louisiana.

12/09/2009
Rastafarian prisoners in segregation for nearly 10 years
Bill Clinton was president when a handful of Virginia prisoners entered segregation cells rather than cut their hair. The inmates, Rastafarians, complain the Department of Corrections' grooming policy of Dec. 15, 1999, violates their religion. Followers of the Rastafari movement let their hair grow in dreadlocks and let their beards grow.

12/09/2009
American Youth in the 21st Century:
Pathologized, Criminalized and Disposable
Punishment and fear have replaced compassion and social responsibility as the most important modalities mediating the relationship of youth to the larger social order. Youth within the last two decades have come to be seen as a source of trouble rather than as a resource for investing in the future, and in the case of poor black and Hispanic youth are increasingly treated as either a disposable population, cannon fodder for barbaric wars abroad, or the source of most of society’s problems.

12/07/2009
The Graying of America’s Prisons
Part One of our Special Report, we look at one of the hidden legacies of the tough-on-crime policies of previous decades: a growing population of aging and ill offenders behind bars. Frank Soffen, now 70 years old, has lived more than half his life in prison, and will likely die there.

NOVEMBER - 2009

11/25/2009
Minnesota may use private prison in Appleton
Minnesota is courting an influx of 1,600 Pennsylvania prison inmates, hoping to save jobs at Prairie Correctional Facility, a private prison in Appleton. The prison, owned by Corrections Corporation of America, is reeling after losing most of its Minnesota inmates and all of the inmates it once housed from Washington state. A month ago, the prison told 120 employees -- more than half of the work force -- that they would lose their jobs Dec. 1.

11/24/2009
New Iowa State Penitentiary Fort Madison plans unveiled
Planning is nearly complete, and in just a few months work will begin on a brand new multi-million dollar maximum security prison in Fort Madison. The new Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison will be located on highway X38 where Prison Farm 1 is located.

11/22/2009
Wish list for more prison building incluing more cages for women
Crowding at Baylor Women's Correctional Institution near New Castle, the state's only women's prison, could become a crisis even if there's a relatively small spike in crime, Corrections Commissioner Carl C. Danberg told state budget writers Thursday.

11/22/2009
PA to transfer up to 2000 prisoners out of state
Early next year, for the first time in its history, Pennsylvania plans to contract with another state or states to board as many as 2,000 convicted criminals. The reason is simple and troubling: The number of inmates in Pennsylvania's 27 prisons is growing faster than the state can build new ones.

11/18/2009
Fight for Lifers West
Donna Pfender, President – Fight For Lifers West. I wish to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to testify today about the impact that transferring inmates to other states will have, not only on the inmates themselves, but on their family members and loved ones.

11/17/2009
Iowa's jump in prison population eases
A state report shows the increase in Iowa's prison population is easing. The report issued Monday forecasts that by 2019, the state's nine prisons will hold about 9,000 inmates, up about 8 percent from current numbers.

11/14/2009
Prison health-care costs rise as prisoners grow older and sicker
White fuzz covers his bald head. His sallow skin sags. A wheelchair and cane support limp legs. This is not the typical image of a prison inmate. But 73-year-old George Sanges is among the burgeoning elderly population behind bars, a group expected to continue to grow as baby boomers age and states implement longer sentences.

11/06/2009
What the census will get wrong--gerrymandering prisoners
The 2010 U.S. Census will soon be upon us, and by now you may have heard one of the patriotic pitches to comply. Every breathing soul must be tallied during the massive federal endeavor, the national headcount taken every decade.

OCTOBER - 2009

10/31/2009
Possible layoffs unsettle Iowa prison guards and workers
The mood was tense and somber at the Newton Correctional Facility during Thursday’s first shift change, as rank-and-file prison workers await the outcome of union negotiations that could determine their fates.

10/23/2009
Arizona May Put State Prisons in Private Hands
One of the newest residents on Arizona’s death row, a convicted serial killer named Dale Hausner, poked his head up from his television to look at several visitors strolling by, each of whom wore face masks and vests to protect against the sharp homemade objects that often are propelled from the cells of the condemned.

10/22/2009
515 Layoffs Could Threaten Security At Iowa's Prisons
Security in Iowa's prison system could be seriously tested by $35.7 million in budget cuts proposed Wednesday that would result in 515 layoffs in the Iowa Department of Corrections, state officials said.

10/22/2009
Endless Insanity: Judges reject California plan to cut prison crowding
Three federal judges on Wednesday forcefully rejected a Schwarzenegger administration proposal to ease prison overcrowding, threatening to impose their own plan for reducing the inmate population if the state does not submit an acceptable one within three weeks.

10/21/2009
Kelso and State Agree to Build Prison for 1,733 sick and mentally ill prisoners
State corrections officials and a court-appointed overseer of prison healthcare have agreed to build a new 1,733-bed facility for sick and mentally ill inmates at an estimated cost of $1.1 billion.

10/18/2009
Months to Live- Fellow Inmates Ease the Pain of Dying in Jail
Allen Jacobs lived hard for his 50 years, and when his liver finally shut down he faced the kind of death he did not want. On a recent afternoon Mr. Jacobs lay in a hospital bed staring blankly at the ceiling, his eyes sunk in his skull, his skin lusterless. A volunteer hospice worker, Wensley Roberts, ran a wet sponge over Mr. Jacobs’s dry lips, encouraging him to drink.

10/15/2009
Prison for the old and infirm may close
Dennis Castano can rattle on about pinochle, his favorite Louis L'Amour paperbacks and his days working as a logger, but he can't seem to remember why he's in prison.

10/06/2009
The Prison Town Advantage
To say that Danny Young did not win his seat on the Anamosa, Iowa, City Council by a landslide is an understatement of extreme proportions. Young won that seat in 2006 with just two write-in votes, one of them cast by his wife. The definition of the reluctant politician, Young didn't even vote for himself. There were no other candidates for the seat.

10/05/2009
From National Advocates for Pregnant Women: Shackling Pregnant Prisoners in Labor Found to be Cruel by the Eighth Circuit
On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit (the federal level appellate court that reviews decisions from federal district courts in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, and Arkansas) issued the long-awaited decision in Nelson v. Norris.

10/01/2009
Study Highlights HIV/AIDS Challenge In American Prison System
HIV/AIDS is up to five times more prevalent in American prisons than in the general population. Adherence to treatment programs can be strictly monitored in prison. However, once prisoners are released, medical monitoring becomes problematic.

SEPTEMBER - 2009

09/26/2009
Time to get real on prison crowding
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his team continue to suffer from multiple-policy disorder on prison overcrowding. On one side, the governor declares a state of emergency and says it is absolutely possible to reduce prison population without harming public safety.

09/24/2009
Pinellas County Jail drops $8 co-pay for prisoners doctor visits
The Pinellas County Jail will no longer charge an $8 co-payment to inmates seeking medical care, forfeiting an estimated $50,000 in annual revenue from a policy that jail officials said created more problems than profit.

09/23/2009
Details emerge in inmate's heat-related death
Disturbing new details emerged Wednesday in the death of Marcia Powell, an Arizona state prison inmate who died of heat-related causes after being left in an outdoor cage for hours.The Arizona Department of Corrections' internal investigation of Powell's death on May 20 runs about 3,000 pages. The department announced this week that it has disciplined 16 people in connection with the incident, with five employees fired or forced to resign. A criminal investigation is ongoing.

09/22/2009
Workers Punished In Inmate's Death
Sixteen Arizona prison workers have been disciplined or fired for the death of an inmate left in an outdoor cage. Three of those disciplined were fired, two stepped down in place of being fired, 10 received suspensions ranging from 40 to 80 hours, and one was demoted. Two others will be disciplined after they return from medical leave.

09/19/2009
Schwarzenegger's prison reduction plan falls short of court order
Facing a midnight deadline, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and top prison officials Friday released a plan that falls far short of a federal court order to relieve prison overcrowding.

09/15/2009
Medical Inattention in New York Prisons
Prison inmates are the sickest people in society, with infection rates for blood-borne viruses like H.I.V. and hepatitis C far higher than the general population. Failing to test, counsel and treat these inmates makes it more likely that they will spread infection once they are released and suffer catastrophic illnesses that shorten their lives and drive up public health costs.

09/11/2009
MA: Possible closing of 4 prisons....although reality of it very doubtful
Under increasing financial pressure, the state’s prison system is weighing close to $100 million in budget cuts that could force widescale layoffs and the closure of several facilites at a time of growing fears over inmate overcrowding.

09/11/2009
Pippin Ross, former reporter talks about her years at Framingham Prison
Doing time in MCI-Framingham may have landed Pippin Ross, who once ran a public radio station in western Massachusetts before she was jailed for multiple drunken driving charges, the biggest scoop of her career: revealing what she refers to as the "beast of the correction system."

09/02/2009
SILENT TORTURE: Dog Days Turn Deadly in America’s Prisons
The U.S. government made a point of building new air-conditioned facilities for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. However, many of our equally hot southern states do not share that concern for human decency, and many deaths have and are occurring as the result.

AUGUST - 2009

08/28/2009
Vt. Prison Health Care Questioned by Guards
Vermont's state employees union claims the Corrections Department is providing inadequate training and care for mentally ill prisoners. Prison officials say the facts prove otherwise. The state employees union told a legislative committee that its union member corrections officers had observed many instances of improper care for mentally ill inmates in prisons.

08/23/2009
It's tough for terminally ill inmates to receive medical furloughs
Almost a year ago Alabama passed a law that would allow terminally ill inmates a chance to die at home and, it was hoped, save the state a little money.

08/20/2009
Nicholas Kristoff: Priority Test: Health Care or Prisons?
At a time when we Americans may abandon health care reform because it supposedly is “too expensive,” how is it that we can afford to imprison people like Curtis Wilkerson? Mr. Wilkerson is serving a life sentence in California — for stealing a $2.50 pair of socks. As The Economist noted recently, he already had two offenses on his record (both for abetting robbery at age 19), and so the “three strikes” law resulted in a life sentence.

08/19/2009
Maine: New Law Allows Some Terminally Ill Inmates to Leave Prison Early
Today Gov. John Baldacci signed into law a bill that amends a few correctional programs. LD 1224, "An Act Regarding the Operation of County Jails and the State Board of Corrections," will allow terminally ill inmates to leave prison early if they do not pose a threat to public safety. And the law also expands domestic violence and sexual assault victim notification requirements.

08/14/2009
New Law Allows Some Terminally Ill Inmates to Leave Prison Early
Today Gov. John Baldacci signed into law a bill that amends a few correctional programs. LD 1224, "An Act Regarding the Operation of County Jails and the State Board of Corrections," will allow terminally ill inmates to leave prison early if they do not pose a threat to public safety.

08/16/2009
States going to great lengths to squeeze money from prisoners
A one-night stay? Ninety dollars. Need to see a doctor? Ten bucks. Want toilet paper? Pay for it yourself. In the ever-widening search for extra income during desperate economic times, states across the nation are embracing a new idea: making inmates pay their debt to society not only in hard time, but also in cold, hard cash.

08/12/2009
At least 23 states spend less on prisons
A survey of 33 states by the Vera Institute of Justice found that 23 have slashed funding for corrections this year: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington.

08/11/2009
Iowa Spends Second Least Per Capita On Prisons
Iowa taxpayers are getting a bargain on spending for state prisons and community corrections programs, a state official said Friday, as reported by the Des Moines Register.

08/01/2009
Washington state may release more seriously ill prisoners to save money
About two dozen seriously ill prisoners in Washington state could soon be released from prison — as long as their freedom is expected to save the cash-strapped state money.

JULY - 2009

07/02/2009
D.M. man who killed wife, neighbor commits suicide in prison
A man convicted of killing his wife and a neighbor in Des Moines last August committed suicide early today at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, a prison spokesman said.

Iowa prison population drops but trend expected to change
The number of inmates in Iowa prisons is dropping, but corrections officials expect that trend to change over the next decade. This week, Iowa's prison population dipped to 8,454 inmates. That's the lowest inmate count since October 2007, when Iowa had a record 8,840 men and women behind bars.

JUNE - 2009

06/15/2009
Ku Klux Klan protests inmates’ treatment at prison
The Ku Klux Klan came to Fort Madison on Saturday, but with only a handful of Klansman and without the stereotypical white sheets. They came from as far away as South Bend, Ind., and Mercer, Wis., to protest what they say is the mistreatment and discrimination of some Christian inmates at the Iowa State Penitentiary.

06/14/2009
Architecture: Behind Bars, Sort Of
Go ahead and say it; everyone does. Certainly I did. Here’s a striking building, perched on a slope outside the small Austrian town of Leoben - a sleek structure made of glass, wood and concrete, stately but agile, sure in its rhythms and proportions: each part bears an obvious relationship to the whole.

06/09/2009
Why shouldn't prisoners receive their social security?
David Hinman, a prisoner in Iowa, wrote today and posed this question. He is 65 and when he was in the "free-world" contributed to social security. He is not eligible for parole for a number years.

MAY - 2009

05/14/2009
Black prison population in Iowa could grow
Blacks continue to be incarcerated in Iowa prisons at a number far out of proporation to their overall population in the state, and that disparity is expected to grow over the next 10 years, state prison officials were told Wednesday.

05/11/2009
Florida prison becomes faith-based penitentiary
State prison officials hope to tap into that faith to boost morale, improve prisoner rehabilitation and minimize the immense boredom of life behind bars. On Tuesday, the Palm Beach County prison becomes South Florida's first faith and character based penitentiary.

05/10/2009
New Maximum Security Prison - A New Vision
One of Iowa's largest building projects was authorized with a single sentence in a legislative spending bill last year: "For the costs associated with the building of a new Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison: $130,677,500.

05/05/2009
Letters from Iowa State Penitentiary
Towards the end of January a long awaited package was delivered to an inmate at Iowa State Penitentiary, it was his long sought Anger Resolution course from a church publishing house.

APRIL - 2009

04/28/2009
May case in spotlight again
2001 murder of Bellevue man will be examined in another TV show
A notorious Bellevue, Iowa, murder case attracted the attention of another national television network. A production team from "Extreme Forensics," which airs on the Investigation Discovery Network, is in Dubuque and Bellevue this weekend taping an episode about Greg May's gruesome murder in 2001.

MARCH - 2009

03/06/2009
New wardens named for two Iowa prisons
John Fayram, Jerry Burt and Dan Craig (l-r)The Iowa Board of Corrections today approved the appointments of two new prison wardens. Corrections Director John Baldwin also appointed three people to key administrative positions. John Fayram is the new warden of the Anamosa State Penitentiary.

JANUARY - 2009

01/28/2009
Art from behind prison walls
Fort Madison gallery to host work from ISP inmates. For those outside the imposing walls of the Iowa State Penitentiary, life inside is rarely glimpsed. Next month, however, the Fort Madison Area Arts Association will give people on the outside a rare look into the lives and psyche of a handful of the men who inhabit the maximum-security prison.

01/24/2009
ISP inmate attacks officer
A correctional officer at the Iowa State Penitentiary was treated at a hospital after being attacked and beaten by an inmate, an official of the Iowa Department of Corrections said Friday.

01/15/2009
Council eyes purchasing flood barriers
For Burlington residents, memories of floodwater submerging the city's riverfront and sections of the downtown are a reminder of the city's proximity to the Mississippi River.

01/08/2009
Three hours long enough for prisoners’ religious observance
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms lower Iowa court decision that Wiccan prisoners were treated fairly. Three Iowa inmates, convinced that they were not allowed enough time for proper religious ceremony, have lost their claim on appeal.

DECEMBER - 2008

12/29/2008
Fort Madison prison gets OK'd in 2008
With portions of the Iowa State Penitentiary dating back before the Civil War, it's no wonder a revamp was on the docket during the 2008 legislative agenda. There was no doubt on either side of the aisle that the Fort Madison facility was showing its age, but that's where the agreement ended.

AUGUST - 2008

08/05/2008
Cease judging others
I was reading a Letter to the Editor where a reader wrote “Solution is simple - hang ‘em.” That is the most deplorable statement I have heard, but in today's society I hear more ignorant comments like it being made.

JULY - 2008

07/31/2008
Fort Dodge prison cuts out smoking
Inmates at the Fort Dodge state prison will have their cigarette supply permanently cut off Friday, and they won't be doing any more puffing after November 1st.

07/21/2008
Prison partnership applauded
There was plenty to celebrate at 1101 Palean St. in Keokuk Friday afternoon. Not only did the occasion mark the completion of a Habitat for Humanity House for a couple and their son, but also the fruits of a partnership with prisoners were evident.

JUNE - 2008

06/30/2008
Legal group in Iowa aims to review convictions
The odds of a judge overturning a murder conviction in Iowa are minute, but a handful of lawyers are out to change that.

MAY - 2008

05/09/2008
Despite exemption, prisons to ban smoking
Iowa's prisons will become tobacco-free in early January even though state lawmakers exempted the institutions in a new law that bans smoking in most public places.

05/10/2008
Culver signs bill for new prison
There was joy in southeast Iowa Friday, as Gov. Chet Culver signed legislation for $250 million in statewide construction projects that includes money for a new 800-bed maximum-security unit at the Iowa State Penitentiary.

05/03/2008
Officials begin work on prisons
The first inmates won't be locked up at Fort Madison's new 800-bed, maximum-security prison until January 2014, but Iowa corrections officials are already working on the $131 million project.

APRIL - 2008

04/24/2008
House votes for prison funding
With House passage of the state's infrastructure bill Friday night, southeast Iowa is one step closer to getting a new prison in Fort Madison.

04/24/2008
State Senate approves money for new Fort Madison prison
The Iowa Senate approved $130.7 million in bonding to pay for a new state penitentiary at Fort Madison tonight, and approved spending $184 million for upgrades at the women's prison in Mitchellville.

MARCH - 2008

03/19/2008
Inmate who killed Anamosa couple dies behind bars
Inmate Ronald Brewer, 68, who escaped in 1975 and killed an Anamosa couple in their home, died Tuesday at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison after a long illness with advanced lung disease, prison officials said today.

03/18/2008
Officers fired after death of prisoner
Two correctional officers at the Iowa State Penitentiary were fired after they lied about how often they checked on an inmate who was dead for about an hour before his body was discovered in a prison mental health unit, state records show.

03/06/2008
Elderly Prison Population Growing, Becoming More Costly
In Pennsylvania, the number of inmates ages 55 and older increased from 1,892 in September 2001 to 2,520 by last December, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in Sunday's editions. Inmates ages 50 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. prison population.

03/03/2008
Victims' views mixed on prison proposals
The Iowa Legislature's debate over a $256 million plan to expand and upgrade the state's prison system strikes some raw emotions for Iowa crime victims.

FEBRUARY - 2008

02/22/2008
Man dies in prison under care of 'condescending' doctor
An attorney says the death of an inmate at the state prison system's infirmary was hastened by inadequate medical care by a doctor whose practices have been questioned in the past.

02/18/2008
Capitol Update: Lawmakers deliberate Iowa's prisons
Prisons aren't at the top of the list of spending priorities for many Iowa taxpayers. If the state is going to spend more money on infrastructure improvements, most would rather see the state pitch more money into road maintenance and schools.

Prisoner mental health care lags
Inmate Matthew Ward of Mason City got so depressed in December he tried to hang himself in a Fort Madison prison cell.

Fort Madison inmate commits suicide
An inmate serving a life prison sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary apparently committed suicide by hanging himself with a bed sheet. Ryan Wichhart’s body was found about 1:15 a.m. Sunday.

02/12/2008
Putting up a fight Area residents encouraged to lobby legislators to keep prison in Fort Madison
The fight to keep the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison was continued Monday morning as representatives of several groups held a press conference to explain what steps are being taken to secure the prison.

02/10/2008
Number of Iowa inmates up 200%
Iowa is on the verge of a $256 million prison construction boom, and Nicholas Viola is one of the statistics behind the growth trend.

Let's work at NOT building prisons
Iowa has a choice: Undertake its biggest prison-building spree in history, or look for alternatives that reduce the need for more prisons.

Fort Madison prison could stay in use, official says
The antiquated Iowa State Penitentiary's maximum-security unit could stay open, even if legislators approve spending $130.7 million to replace it, state Corrections Director John Baldwin said last week.

2/03/2008
Prisoners volunteer to care for sick and dying inmates
Many people fear death, and what they may fear most is dying alone. For inmates in the Iowa State Penitentiary, there is the compounded misery of dying alone in prison.

JANUARY - 2008

01/17/2008
Hansen: Judge urges firms to employ ex-prisoners
Like most federal judges, Robert Pratt doesn't do many public service announcements. In fact, before Wednesday, he hadn't done any.

01/16/2008
Some Republicans seek options for prison
While Democratic Gov. Chet Culver has endorsed building a new prison in Fort Madison to replace the aging Iowa State Penitentiary, some Republicans say a different location should be considered.

Does Iowa really need prison building boom?
The Iowa Legislature is being asked to invest $240 million in new and bigger prisons. Is it also prepared to make sure those prisons meet the state's needs in the long term?

01/14/2008
Ft. Madison prison: A town's future in state's hands
Retired businessman Rudie Allison stopped shoveling snow for a minute. He reflected on what would happen if the maximum security prison here were shut down and replaced by a new prison elsewhere.

01/11/2008
Prisoners' prescription service improves
An Iowa prison official said they have instituted changes in the way they fill inmates' prescriptions on the farms outside the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison after complaints from inmates it took too long.

01/07/2008
Iowa Legislature to consider construction of new prison
The Iowa State Penitentiary is tired, old and outdated and needs to be replaced, a group of lawmakers has decided.

Officials beef up Oakdale prison's perimeter
Security worries at the Oakdale state prison near Iowa City are prompting state officials to spend $2 million to install new high-tech fences and outdoor lighting to prevent escapes.

01/04/2008
Inmate is found dead in health care unit
An inmate assigned to the Iowa State Penitentiary Clinical Care Unit was found dead in his bed Sunday.

DECEMBER - 2007

12/27/2007
Iowa inmates' handiwork helps poor
The state's most dangerous convicts are in closely guarded custody at the Iowa State Penitentiary, but some are working to make life a little better for Iowa's low-income families.

12/19/2007
No. 1 at imprisoning, but not at reforming
While some leading indicators of the U.S. economy are flagging, one measure of the national condition continues to grow at a steady pace: the number of Americans in prison. As of the most recent count, 2.26 million Americans were incarcerated in state and federal prisons and jails, up nearly 3 percent from the year before and up 36 percent in the past six years.

Iowa helps drive trend of higher inmate numbers
Iowa historically has been an island of sanity on prisons, especially when compared to states such as Texas and California. Iowa long believed that prison should be the last option. That has changed in recent decades, however, and Iowa has racked up some of the fastest prison-growth rates in the nation.

State requests review of prison ministry ruling
The state of Iowa and lawyers for an evangelical Christian prison ministry program have asked the entire 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a Dec. 3 ruling that said the state cannot fund the program because it violates the separation of church and state required by the Constitution.

NOVEMBER - 2007

11/26/2007
Iowa Prison Overhaul Could Make More Room At Sioux City Center
Ever since an escape at Iowa's maximum security prison, in November of 2005, the security of the state's prison system has been a concern. There are new recommendations on how solve that problem, and it could mean the expansion of one Sioux City residential treatment facility.

11/19/2007
US prison system 'costly failure'
The US prison population has risen eight-fold since 1970, with little impact on crime but at great cost to the taxpayer, researchers say. There are more than 1.5 million people in US state and federal jails, a report by a Washington-based criminal justice research group, the JFA Institute says.

11/15/2007
Legislators endorse upgrades of prisons
A committee of the Iowa Legislature has proposed nearly $240 million in prison construction, including a new maximum-security facility at Fort Madison and expansions of the Mitchellville and Newton prisons.

11/14/2007
Panel: Warden's party exhibited poor taste
State ethics officials have concluded that a Newton prison warden's 50th birthday party was not in good taste, but it wasn't obscene and did not involve a misuse of state property.

11/12/2007
Artist draws out talent of student inmates
The wind never lets up. It whips through the razor-wire fence that surrounds the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women, scattering leaves between the low, brick buildings that circle the campus. The evening is cold and quiet and, now that daylight-saving time has ended, surprisingly dark.

11/04/2007
Warden's birthday photos trigger apology
Iowa prison officials are apologizing after Newton's prison warden was photographed at his 50th birthday party using a wheelchair and a walker while holding gag gifts that made fun of older people.

11/02/2007
Scare black youth straight so they can avoid racist system
To many black prisoners, Iowa is perceived as having America's most racist criminal-justice system. They point to the fact that Iowa leads the nation in racial disparities; more blacks per capita are in Iowa's prisons than in any other state.

11/02/2007
Gronstal predicts lawmakers will approve new prison
Iowa's prison system is expected to be a big topic at the Legislature next year.
Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal says lawmakers will likely vote to replace the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison and expand the prisons in Newton and Mitchellville.

OCTOBER - 2007

10/28/2007
Meth lab busts plunge, but problems persist
Since Iowa enacted a pseudoephedrine-control law in 2005, meth lab seizures in the state dropped 77 percent in 2006 compared with two years before, according to the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy.

10/13/2007
System must recognize that prisoners change
Federal sentencing guidelines are just that - guidelines - but are too complex to understand. I have a son who became addicted to drugs and is now in federal prison. It is true that prison may have saved his life in that it stopped the train he was riding and allowed him the chance to change.

10/12/2007
Blacks seek action on prison rates
Jacque Linley walked out of Thursday night's forum a frustrated woman. A grandmother and Des Moines School District employee, Linley showed up looking for solutions to one of Iowa's longtime problems: an unusually high disproportion of blacks in prison.

10/12/2007
Iowa State Patrol chief takes Iowa prison post
Col. Robert Garrison, who has headed the Iowa State Patrol the past eight years, said today he is retiring as Iowa's chief state trooper to accept a post in the state prison system.

10/11/2007
Legislators tour crowded women's prison
Iowa legislators shook their heads Wednesday after touring the state women's prison, where 636 female convicts are living in facilities designed to hold 443.

10/08/2007
Penitentiary's voice will retire after 28 years
It was lunchtime at the Iowa State Penitentiary, and as Ron Welder, the prison spokesman, ate roast beef and mashed potatoes, he gestured to an area a few feet away in the dining hall. On that spot in 1992, convict Edward Deases killed a fellow prisoner, Joseph Perea, with a handcrafted knife, known as a "shank," as inmates lined up for breakfast.

10/05/2007
Prisons' racial disparity raises debate
The number of blacks behind bars for drug-related crimes is rising again in Iowa. At the same time, a new anti-methamphetamine law has resulted in fewer new prison admissions for white Iowans.

10/04/2007
Allow judges flexibility in deciding sentences
In an oral argument on an Iowa case involving federal sentencing rules Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court seemed hopelessly confused about what direction to take. Pity the poor judges in the lower courts who must apply whatever the justices ultimately decide.

10/2/2007
Iowa could be leader in reforming prison system
Your Sept. 21 editorial ("Be Wary of Lanuching Prison-Building Spree") while interesting, missed the most important point. In the budget asking by the Iowa Department of Corrections is a request for minimum-security and residential beds.

This is important because we have a backlog of 405 offenders in prison waiting for residential beds outside the prisons. If you include those on parole or in federal prisons, the number increases to 916. The budget request approved by the DOC board would increase the number of community-based-correction beds by 250 to 275 new beds.

10/1/2007
Kiwanis members join ISP inmates to install new playground equipment
Caring For Our Children.That's the motto of all Kiwanis Clubs, nationally, internationally and in Fort Madison. We ended up handling the labor,” Kiwanis member Jim Doore said while club members and Iowa State Penitentiary inmates worked most of Saturday installing the equipment.

SEPTEMBER - 2007

9/29/2007
Judges seek leeway in prison sentences
Marion Hungerford, a 52-year-old woman diagnosed with a mental illness, was convicted two years ago as an accomplice after her live-in boyfriend pleaded guilty to a series of armed robberies in Billings, Mont. Her sentence: 159 years in federal prison.

9/21/2007
Be wary of launching prison-building spree
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.

9/20/2007
Aging Fort Madison prison gets visit from legislators
Crumbling concrete, inadequate plumbing and rusting metal were showcased Wednesday as state lawmakers toured the aging State Penitentiary here. Their conclusion after spending most of the day exploring the prison, parts of which predate the Civil War, was that the state should build a new prison here or upgrade the existing facility, or perhaps do both, key legislators said.

9/19/2007
Guards: Keep old cells - Fort Madison needs them,
plus new prison, union leader says
Fort Madison Union leaders told legislators Wednesday they oppose closing the maximum-security cellblocks at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, saying the state needs the beds to house the state's burgeoning prison population.

9/18/2007
Board approves $121 M plan to rebuild prisons
The state Board of Corrections endorsed a plan Monday to spend $290 million to upgrade Iowa's prison system, including replacing the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison and the women's prison in Mitchellville.

9/17/2007
Mount Pleasant prison chief quits
James Carter, who became superintendent of the Mount Pleasant state prison and mental health institute last year, has abruptly resigned, state officials confirmed today.

9/16/2007
Prison hospice becomes reality after many years
Still in its infancy stages, the hospice program at Dodge Correctional Institution is taking baby steps forward. The program, the first in a Wisconsin correctional setting, is a reality today due to a multi-disciplinary team effort between prison administration, security staff, chaplaincy, social services and psychological services staff, medical staff and inmate volunteers.

9/10/2007
E-mail a good tool for inmates
Justified or not, people complain about prison inmates having access to weight rooms and cable television. And now we suspect some are grumbling about the Iowa Department of Corrections' consideration of a plan to allow inmates to communicate with the "outside" via e-mail.

9/07/2007
600 Iowa inmates awaiting sex offender treatment
Iowa’s prison system is trying to cope with more than 600 convicted sex offenders on waiting lists to receive sex offender treatment – a number that’s been surging because of tougher laws and criminal prosecutions, a state official said Friday.

9/02/2007
Iowa tightens security at prison - Fort Madison getting $1.6 million upgrade
Iowa's toughest prison is undergoing a $1.6 million security upgrade aimed at keeping the state's most dangerous convicts behind bars. The Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison, which has 1,119 inmates, continues to tighten security in the wake of the November 2005 escape of two prisoners serving life sentences, state prison officials confirmed last week.

AUGUST - 2007

8/26/2007
Inmate dies in suspected suicide at state prison
An inmate at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison was found dead in his cell early Sunday morning in what officials have preliminarily classified as a suicide.

8/25/2007
Iowa prison system jammed: solutions slow to develop
Iowa's aging prison system is 21 percent over capacity and officials warn that any meaningful solution could take years because of the huge cost. As of Thursday, there were 8,813 inmates in the state's prisons, which are designed to hold 7,256 inmates.

8/22/2007
Lee voters OK jail bond - $5.4 million bond issue sails to victory
with 84 percent in support
Residents in Lee County have decided to buy rather than rent.Voters in Lee County gave a resounding yes Tuesday to passing a $5.4 million bond referendum to help pay for $6.25 million in renovations and expansion of the Lee County Corrections Center.

8/17/2007
Lawmakers want to return attack dogs to prisons
Two House Republicans want to re-enact a policy that allows prisons to use dogs on inmates who refuse to leave their cells. Reps. Steve Lukan and Clel Baudler sent a letter to Gov. Chet Culver on Thursday, saying that prison officials have been at a disadvantage since the state last fall banned them from using trained attack dogs to control inmates, except in life-threatening situations.

8/15/2007
Iowa ruling could lower inmates' bonds
Getting out of jail will be a little easier thanks to a decision by the Iowa Supreme Court to lower the amount of bonds that some inmates can pay to be released. The court also ordered that police no longer stack crimes to ensure higher bonds for people charged with crimes. Instead, courts now can impose only the bond for the highest criminal charge.

JULY - 2007

7/20/2007
Inmate loses chance for commutation
Gov. Chet Culver has denied a request to commute the life sentence of Jesse Masterson, 63, convicted of a 1981 stabbing murder of Donald Schmidt in Hiawatha.

7/19/2007
Make prison rates of blacks a top priority
Ten years ago, a national study by a prison-sentencing research organization revealed that Iowa had the second-highest ratio of blacks in prison compared to whites. A report released by the organization this week showed that nothing has changed. Iowa is still No. 2, right behind the District of Columbia.

7/18/2007
Black-white prisoner ratio highest in U.S.
Study urges sentencing reform, better defense for indigents; some Iowans urge bolder steps. A national study released today ranks Iowa No. 1 in the nation in the ratio of blacks to whites in prison - a statistic that many advocates say underscores a failure to address one of the state's most serious problems.

7/2/2007
Prisons settle over fines on safety
State prisons in Fort Madison and Newton have agreed to pay a total of $19,000 in fines stemming from three workplace accidents and an incident involving an inmate being forcibly removed from a cell. The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Bureau had originally proposed fines totaling $92,000 for the incidents, which range from inmates suffering injuries while using power saws to correctional officers being exposed to potentially infectious materials.

JUNE - 2007

6/14/2007
Prison drug treatment needs an overhaul
Nine out of 10 inmates in Iowa prisons have a drug or alcohol problem. Most of those prisoners will eventually be released, and their drug problems may lead to more criminal behavior and a trip back to the joint. The Iowa Department of Management recently released a performance audit of the Iowa Department of Corrections, which found that 60 percent of inmates with substance-abuse problems don't receive treatment while incarcerated.

MAY - 2007

5/29/2007
Chief of Iowa's prisons ready to tackle issues
The new boss of Iowa's prison system is accustomed to being in the middle of the action, both on and off the playing fields. John Baldwin worked fall weekends for about 30 years as a football referee, throwing penalty flags and signaling touchdowns at Iowa high school and college games until retiring last year. He is also a former basketball official. As the new director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, Baldwin has been thrust into the center of a high-profile policy debate over the future of Iowa's prison system.

APRIL - 2007

MARCH - 2007

3/12/2007
Polk Co. man convicted of patricide dies in prison
Richard Wheeler, 52, who had been in prison the past 22 years for the December 1984 slaying of his father in Polk County, died today at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

FEBRUARY - 2007

2/27/2007
Prison audit says security still lacking at Fort Madison
The Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison still suffers from security flaws that could make it vulnerable to the type of escape that occurred in November 2005 when two dangerous convicts fled the maximum-security prison, according to a federal security audit.

2/26/2007
Security study urges changes at Iowa prison
The Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison still suffers from security flaws that could make it vulnerable to the type of escape that occurred in November 2005 when two dangerous convicts fled from the maximum-security prison, according to a new federal security audit.

2/18/07
Doak: Surge in prison population shows all is not well in Iowa
Something in Iowa has gone dreadfully awry. At the least, something is dreadfully different than it used to be, and Iowa is a lesser place because of it. Perhaps that's the way it is with profound change. Everything seems normal until you look back over the decades and realize how different things are.

2/14/07
Iowa prison growth to eclipse neighbors but S.D., study says
The rising numbers would mean more spending on inmates instead of other needs, report states.The growth of Iowa's prison population over the next five years is forecast to outpace all but one surrounding Midwest state, according to a national study issued today.

2/08/07
Prison Ministry Case in Appeals Court
Federal appeals court panel of three judges, including former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, will hear arguments next week in a case that challenges President Bush's policy of intermingling private faith-based programs and government.

Prison ends extra perks for lifers who behave
The Iowa State Penitentiary has abolished an "honor" program for convicts serving life sentences, sparking an uproar in which 40 inmates have filed grievances in protest.

JANUARY - 2007

1/28/07
New laws, not new prisons, are Iowa's answer
We don't need more prison space in Iowa. What we need are reasonable laws and policies that are smart on crime, rather than making a big show of being tough on crime.

1/19/07
DNA database cracks cold cases
Martin Sinclair Duffy is in the Polk County Jail because of an astute probation officer and Iowa legislators who authorized money to expand DNA testing and a state DNA database.

1/14/07
2 Iowa prisons face $92,000 in fines
State prisons in Fort Madison and Newton face $92,000 in fines for three workplace accidents and an incident that involved the forced removal of an inmate from his cell.

1/12/07
Expand prisons in Iowa, says consultant
Iowa's prison system would construct new space for more than 1,500 convicts at Fort Madison, Mitchellville and Newton under a state consultant's recommendations presented Thursday to the Iowa Board of Corrections.

1/11/07
Consultant: Build more cells at Fort Madison
State prisons in Fort Madison and Mitchellville would undergo major overhauls under construction plans recommended today to the Iowa Board of Corrections.

DECEMBER - 2006

12/05/06
Drugs again find way to prison
A second incident of drug smuggling is under investigation at the Iowa State Penitentiary, forcing the lockdown of another cell house at Fort Madison's maximum-security unit.

NOVEMBER - 2006

11/25/06
State reviews how inmates got drugs
Officials say the aging penitentiary at Fort Madison is difficult to keep secure. Investigators are trying to determine how illegal drugs were smuggled into the Iowa State Penitentiary, where 44 inmates spent the past week locked in their cells whiles searches were conducted.

NOVEMBER - 2005

11/19/05
Vilsack: Employees to be disciplined for prison escapes
Six hours after Missouri police captured the second of two inmates who escaped from an Iowa maximum-security prison earlier this week, Gov. Tom Vilsack announced that one prison employee has been suspended and more workers will face punishment.

"Taut wire" security system said to have been working
Two convicts who escaped Monday from Fort Madison's maximum-security prison avoided tripping a high-tech alarm system by reaching the roof of an old Death Row cellhouse and then, with the aid of a homemade rope and grappling hook, leaping over the electronic barrier while scaling a 30-foot wall to freedom.

11/18/05
Vilsack suspends employee in connection with prison break
Gov. Tom Vilsack said Friday that he had suspended at least one state employee in connection with the escape of two inmates at the Iowa State Penitentiary.

Escapee told sub shop workers he was a convict
Legendre, convicted of attempted murder, had been seen repeatedly at the truck stop since Thursday afternoon. He had asked customers for gas money. ‘‘The girls were making him a sub, and he said he was a state convict,’’ said Vivian Hannaford, a cashier. ‘‘We thought he was kidding.’’

Second prison escapee captured in Missouri today
Both escapees from the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison have now been captured. Robert Joseph Legendre, 27, has been captured this morning in southern Missouri, Iowa officials said. Legendre was apprehended in Steele, Mo., said Fred Scaletta, an Iowa prisons spokesman.

11/17/05
Yepsen: Prison escape represents a failure of state government
Let us review for a moment the first purpose of government: It's the protection of the public safety. Nothing's more important. The escape of two dangerous convicts from the state penitentiary at Fort Madison Monday night shows that protecting public safety didn't happen.

One Iowa prison escapee is captured in southern Illinois
Police in southern Illinois this morning captured convicted murderer Martin Shane Moon, 34, who escaped along with another inmate from the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison on Monday.

Legislators: Why didn't prison alarm work?
Some Iowa legislators Wednesday asked why an expensive high-tech alarm system didn't prevent the escape of two dangerous inmates Monday night from the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison.

11/16/05
Fugitives' pasts brim with violence
Alfreda Dickson sat home scared Tuesday. Her grandson had passed word the night before: The man who killed her son Kevin Dickson more than 15 years ago had broken out of prison.

Fort Madison proceeds with caution
Fort Madison schools were locked down Tuesday, closing their doors to strangers as city and state authorities searched for two violent prison fugitives from the city's maximum security prison.

Inmates escaped while tower was unattended
Budget cuts left the post covered for only certain hours. The 2 men are still at large.

11/15/05
Murderers escape; budget cuts left prison tower unmanned
Two prisoners escaped from the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison on Monday night by climbing over a stone wall on the west side of the prison.