Iowa Judiciary chair seeks ‘smarter, more cost-effective’ approach to sentencing

DES MOINES - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Steve Sodders is looking for a 'smarter, more cost-effective way to protect the public” while taking a look at discrepancies in sentencing and racial disparities in Iowa prisons.

'I want to look at how we can move resources to address violent crime,” the State Center Democrat said Tuesday after the committee heard presentations on what's driving the increase in prison population and the overrepresentation of African-Americans in Iowa prisons.

Although African-Americans are just 3.3 percent of the Iowa population, they are 26 percent of prison inmates, according to the Department of Corrections.

Sodders said the DOC's projected 39 percent increase in inmate population from about 8,100 today to 11,300 by fiscal 2024 is not sustainable.

The increase is being driven by an increase in felony conviction rates, inmates' length of stay - particularly for sex offenses and the percentage of inmates who must serve at least 70 percent of their sentences before becoming parole eligible, Sarah Johnson, a justice system analyst for the Iowa Department of Human Rights, told the committee.

Sodders, who is a Marshall County sheriff's deputy, isn't interested in turning violent offenders loose, he said. However, he thinks community-based corrections programs, which cost a fraction of housing a prison inmate, may be a much wiser use of tax dollars for non-violent offenders.

It's too early to take a position, according to Sen. Charles Schneider, R-West Des Moines, because no proposals are on the table.

'We're open-minded,” he said about committee Republicans.

Schneider doesn't think there is a political danger in legislators looking at using tax resources more effectively.

'Voters want to make sure we're not wasting resources,” he said, 'so we're willing to have a dialogue as long as we keep putting away those who pose a threat to public safety.”