NEWS

January 16, 2008
Some Republicans seek options for prison:
Fort Madison residents note local importance of facility.

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.

The issue could be up for discussion during the legislative session, which started Monday.

Support for the prison is deeply rooted in Fort Madison, where the state penitentiary was built in 1839. Many people have taken it for granted a new prison would be built in the community after Culver endorsed the idea during his 2006 election campaign.

But some Republicans feel differently.

"We have a fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers," said state Rep. Lance Horbach, R-Tama, a member of a legislative prison budget subcommittee.

Fort Madison may have been a prime spot for the prison in the 1800s when steamboats were a major means of travel, Horbach said.

But now, with the town being 90 miles from University Hospitals in Iowa City, it's costly to take sick prisoners back and forth, he said.

Other critics say Fort Madison, in extreme southeast Iowa, makes if difficult for families to see inmates -- requiring a two-day drive from western Iowa. Prison officials say it's also difficult to recruit professionals because of Fort Madison's rural location.

Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he wouldn't rule out looking elsewhere, but wondered if some Republicans were playing political games.

"I think our caucus would likely vote pretty resoundingly" against allowing other Iowa communities to compete for the new maximum security prison, Gronstal said.

Horbach would like to see a new maximum-security prison built in Newton, where facilities already exist for minimum- and medium-security prisoners.

The notion that Fort Madison could lose the prison makes residents in the town of 11,400 shudder. The community has lost several major employers in recent years, and November's unemployment rate in Lee County was the fourth-highest in the state at 5.6 percent.

The penitentiary employs 530 people.

"The prison has been a lifeline for our community, and it would be tragic to lose it. It's been a blessing, even though we've had some scary times" with escapes and other incidents, said Sue Saunders, co-owner of the Ivy Bake Shoppe & Cafe in downtown Fort Madison.

Retired businessman Rudie Allison said losing the prison would be devastating.

"It would be a death blow to the city. It would be terrible to lose it," he said.

A proposal to build a new maximum-security prison in Fort Madison was endorsed by a bipartisan legislative study committee last fall. The committee also endorsed improvements at prisons in Mitchellville and Newton, and at community corrections facilities. The total package would cost about $240 million.

Pressure to build a new prison grew after two convicts escaped from the prison in 2005 by climbing over a 30-foot wall. They were later caught in Missouri and Illinois.

Culver spokesman Brad Anderson said the governor still supports building a new maximum-security prison in Fort Madison.

"He believes Fort Madison is an appropriate location for a new prison because there is a highly qualified, built-in work force capable of meeting the security challenges that go along with a maximum security prison," Anderson said.

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