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Culver plan would add inmate beds across state
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
POSTED: April 9, 2008
DES MOINES — The state would add more than 200 beds for community corrections across the state under a plan backed by Gov. Chet Culver.
The proposal, part of a $256 million prison package, calls for up to 150 beds in the Des Moines area, 43 in Waterloo, 42 in Sioux City and 25 in Ottumwa.
The additional beds would free up space in state prison, which now hold about 8,600 inmates. About 400 inmates typically are approved for work-release programs but must remain in prison until community corrections beds open up.
Iowa has more than 1,400 offenders who live in community corrections facilities.
Des Moines City Council member Chris Coleman predicted that neighbors likely wouldn’t be pleased if a corrections center was proposed nearby.
‘‘You know, for this kind of thing to work for the parolees or the neighborhood, it has to be done right,’’ Coleman said.
In Osceola, Mayor Fred Diehl said a community corrections facility might make sense in an industrial area of town.
‘‘I have lived a block in front of the gates of the Anamosa reformatory, and my wife worked there as a psychiatric nurse. So we are pretty well experienced in being around that sort of thing,’’ Diehl said.
The larger prison package includes a new maximum-security prison in Fort Madison and an expansion of the Mitchellville women’s prison.
Sen. Eugene Fraise, D-Fort Madison, said most of Culver’s prison package probably would be approved this session.
The proposal, part of a $256 million prison package, calls for up to 150 beds in the Des Moines area, 43 in Waterloo, 42 in Sioux City and 25 in Ottumwa.
The additional beds would free up space in state prison, which now hold about 8,600 inmates. About 400 inmates typically are approved for work-release programs but must remain in prison until community corrections beds open up.
Iowa has more than 1,400 offenders who live in community corrections facilities.
Des Moines City Council member Chris Coleman predicted that neighbors likely wouldn’t be pleased if a corrections center was proposed nearby.
‘‘You know, for this kind of thing to work for the parolees or the neighborhood, it has to be done right,’’ Coleman said.
In Osceola, Mayor Fred Diehl said a community corrections facility might make sense in an industrial area of town.
‘‘I have lived a block in front of the gates of the Anamosa reformatory, and my wife worked there as a psychiatric nurse. So we are pretty well experienced in being around that sort of thing,’’ Diehl said.
The larger prison package includes a new maximum-security prison in Fort Madison and an expansion of the Mitchellville women’s prison.
Sen. Eugene Fraise, D-Fort Madison, said most of Culver’s prison package probably would be approved this session.
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