The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Legislators tour crowded women's prison
Committee studies consultant's proposal to add space in Mitchellville.
By WILLIAM PETROSKI
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

October 11, 2007

Mitchellville, Ia. — 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.

Lawmakers found as many as six women living in a 10-foot by 14-foot room with bunk beds. In one aging housing unit, 88 women share two showers and two bathtubs and crowding forces the women to iron clothes in a hallway.

There's no infirmary at the prison, nor is there a psychiatric hospital unit, although 60 percent of female offenders in Iowa have had a diagnosis of mental illness. Because many of the housing units weren't constructed for disabled people, ambulance crews face major problems hauling inmates down flights of stairs when medical emergencies happen.

Supervising the inmates in such crowded conditions is "awful" for correctional officers, Deputy Warden Patti Wachtendorf said. Many of the buildings at Mitchellville are not only antiquated but also built in a manner that doesn't easily permit officers to observe prisoners who may be getting into trouble, she said.

State-hired prison consultants told lawmakers Wednesday that the situation must change at the Mitchellville prison. Key legislators who head an interim study committee said they agreed the Iowa Legislature should favorably consider the consultant's recommendations when it convenes in January.

"Some of these infrastructure needs are serious," said state Rep. Todd Taylor, D-Cedar Rapids, who is the committee's co-chairman. "We are going to have to tear down some buildings and construct some new buildings."

State Sen. Eugene Fraise, D-Fort Madison, a committee co-chairman, said he supports a $47 million plan proposed by the Durrant Group, a consulting company, to consolidate the state's entire population of female prisoners at Mitchellville.

New space would be built for as many as 600 inmates. Old buildings would be modernized to provide a new health services unit while offering opportunities for gender-specific programs for the women, many of whom come backgrounds of abuse and drug addiction.

"There is definitely a need," Fraise said. "We're going to have to spend some money."

The committee did not make formal recommendations Wednesday.

Those decisions could also include a proposal to construct a maximum-security prison in Fort Madison, along with improvements at Mitchellville and elsewhere in Iowa's corrections system.

Decisions could be made at a Nov. 14 meeting in Des Moines.

Iowa now has 775 women in its prison system, and the women's prison population has been growing almost twice as fast as the population of male inmates. One factor has been an increasing number of women sent to prison in recent years for drug convictions, many involving methamphetamine.

State criminal justice researchers project Iowa's female inmate population will increase to about 988 inmates by midyear 2016 if current trends continue. Iowa ranks 38th nationally in overall incarceration rates, but is 28th in incarceration of women.

In a discussion prior to the Mitchellville prison tour, state Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, who is the only woman on the 10-member interim committee, said she was troubled by the dramatic increase in female inmates in Iowa.

"It is unbelievable how fast that population is growing," she said.

She added she is concerned that many of these women have suffered from some form of abuse "for a long, long time." She said prison issues should be explored as societal problems starting in early childhood.

State Rep. Wayne Ford, D-Des Moines, had similar concerns, saying he wants to ensure that treatment and education programs are improved if more money is spent on prison construction.

The Iowa Board of Corrections has recommended construction of an 800-bed maximum-security prison at Fort Madison, while closing the penitentiary's existing maximum-security unit.

The proposal assumes continued operation of medium- and minimum-custody units that now operate as part of the penitentiary complex.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007710110392