Lawmakers reach funding agreement for Iowa prisons, victim assistance

House-Senate conference committee members Wednesday finalized a $547.3 million appropriation to fund state prisons, public safety and other justice system functions for the 2014 fiscal year that begins July 1.

The overall funding level in Senate File 447 was an increase from the House's $534.5 million proposal and Gov. Terry Branstad's $535.2 million plan for fiscal 2014, but was $12.8 million below the Senate's request. The package also establishes a 50 percent funding level, or $273.7 million, for fiscal 2015 under the state's biennial budgeting practice.

The biggest funding item is $374.3 million to fund prison and community-based corrections operations next fiscal year.

The measure reduces funding at the state penitentiary in Fort Madison by $8.5 million due to the Branstad administration plan to shut down the critical care unit (CCU) at that facility, said conference committee co-leader Senate Justice System Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Tom Courtney, D-Burlington. The governor also will decide whether to maintain a prison camp at Luster Heights or close it and shift the money to the state penitentiary in Anamosa, he added.

Darin Snedden, president, Iowa State Troopers Association, was disappointed there was no funding to increase the number of troopers on the roads. That sent a message “that public safety is not a budget priority for the governor and the Legislature.”

The highlight of the budget for Courtney was funds to begin a transition in victim assistance and increased funding for community-based corrections facilities the state built but has not used.

Opening the community-based corrections units should allow the Department of Corrections to move inmates, when appropriate, out of prisons to “halfway houses” and back into their communities more quickly, he said.

“Then we shouldn't have to build more prisons,” he said.

House Justice System Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Gary Worthan, R-Storm Lake, agreed that funding increases for Corrections and the Department of Public Safety were high points in the budget.

Like Courtney, he's encouraged by the plan for aiding victims of domestic violence, but said lawmakers will want to monitor progress on the transition.

Among the changes called for in the transition plan are rapid re-housing and emergency shelter by working with landlords and developers to rent apartments upfront so they're available when victims need them; improving cost efficiency – two shelter nights for a family of four can cost as much as a month's rent; and putting nearly 10 more advocates in the field, advocates said.

A major benefit of the reorganization plan, which is based on models in Cedar Rapids and Portland, Ore., is that programs will be able to serve significantly more sexual assault victims than under the current services as well as victims who choose not to use shelter services, they told lawmakers.

The budget also includes increased money to hire more correctional officers, but leaves that decision to the discretion of Branstad administration officials rather than spell out the allotment. It does not include funds for more Iowa State Patrol troopers.

The final justice systems target included nearly $86.9 million for public safety, nearly $16.9 million for the state's Justice Department, $1.3 million for the Civil Rights Commission, $1.2 million for the Iowa Board of Parole, $8.7 million for public defense, and $1.26 million for the human rights department.  The compromise included $6.7 million for victim assistance grants within the Justice Department.