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Movement restricted at Iowa State Penitentiary

For Madison Penitentiary
For Madison Penitentiary
From Fred Scaletta, Assistant Director, Iowa Department of Corrections, in response to AFSCME statement that situation is “critical” at Iowa State Penitentiary –

FORT MADISON – The Iowa State Penitentiary is in a restricted movement status because of contraband brought into the maximum security prison by a line staff member. Dedicated and professional correctional staff, at all levels, have been shaking down the prison to account for the inappropriate items that have been brought into the prison.  An investigation into this matter is currently being conducted. The employee is on administrative leave.

The Iowa Department of Corrections, in conjunction with the Iowa Board of Parole have worked tirelessly to safely reduce Iowa’s prison population.  This had led to the lowest prison population since 2002 which has resulted in better staff to offender ratios. The Governor’s past two budgets and his recommendations for FY14 and FY15 provide predictability and stability for the Department. This is in direct contrast to several years of dramatic decreases in funding for Corrections staff.

The Department of Corrections continues to segregate offenders based on the severity of the offense, evidence based practices and the decisions of Administrative Law Judges.

The closing of the Clinical Care Unit will provide for movement of some mentally ill offenders to Oakdale to allow for closer treatment opportunities to the State’s Forensic Psychiatric Hospital and the care provide to offenders by the University of Iowa. Other mentally ill offenders are being moved to Clarinda to take advantage of vacant prison space which will allow for better treatment opportunities.  Additionally, the opening of the new 800 bed maximum security prison at Fort Madison will require substantial training on new security features, new offender supervision techniques and the new offender level system recently implemented across the 9 prisons.

Staff and offender safety remain, as always, the top priority of the Governor, the Legislature and the Department.

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