Bill would remove local control from Correctional Services

Taking away local control from boards that oversee probation and parole in Iowa is the first step toward privatizing the system, warn Correctional Services board members from around the state.

More than 80 people, including sheriffs, police chiefs and county supervisors, joined a virtual meeting last week with Iowa Department of Corrections Director Beth Skinner with their concerns over a massive state government overhaul proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds she says would save tens of millions.

Dozens of people spoke out against Senate Study Bill 1123, a 1,600-page bill that seeks to reorganize many branches of government, including the Department of Correctional Services.

“You remove local control, you pull everything back under the governor and the Department of Corrections and the next thing we know, this will be up for private bid to who can do it fast, who can do it cheapest and it will be a disservice to the state of Iowa,” said Ann McDonough, a Dubuque County supervisor who serves on the 1st Judicial District’s correctional services board.

Skinner did not discuss the proposal during the hourlong meeting Thursday, even when board members pleaded with her to answer questions.

“We are working on FAQs for staff we’ll share with the directors,” Skinner said. “I’m sure that will be available to you guys as well. I know this is difficult and these are hard conversations, but we are opening to listening.”

For decades, each of Iowa’s eight judicial districts has had a board that makes decisions about community-based corrections, including supervision of thousands of Iowans on probation and parole. The directors of the eight Departments of Correctional Services answer to their local boards, made up of county supervisors, law enforcement officers and other community members.

Under SSB 1123, directors would instead report to Skinner and the local boards would become advisory councils only. Skinner told lawmakers earlier this month the changes would save the state "millions“ of dollars.

A 68-page report by Guidehouse Consulting, a Virginia-based firm whose motto is “Outwit Complexity,” says Iowa can save $3 million a year in Community Based Corrections by consolidating procurement, operations and professional services ($1.3 million), reducing the backlog of parole-eligible people in Iowa’s prisons ($400,000) and through “consistent application of standards” ($1.3 million).

“DOC will also have the ability to leverage evidence based practices across all corrections programs from incarceration to release which will better prepare offenders for successful re-entry,” Corrections spokesman Nick Crawford said in an email Friday.

Standardizing and centralizing leaves little room for creative problem solving at the local level, said Keith Rippy, chair of the 6th Judicial District Correctional Services board and chief executive officer of Area Ambulance in Cedar Rapids.

Local control is what allowed the 6th District to see there was a need for residential treatment center for parolees and probationers with mental health and substance abuse issues, he said. The agency opened the ANCHOR Center in Cedar Rapids in 2015 to meet these needs.

“When you take local control away and move it somewhere else, you lose the ability to make adjustments based upon the specific issues or problems or opportunities each one of these districts could represent,” Rippy said.

Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber said there are two people he knows will always take his calls — Chris Tripp, warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, and Dan Fell, director of the 8th Judicial District Department of Correctional Services.

“My concern is that communication will get lost if it’s in Des Moines,” he said. “I’ve never met the director. I’ve never talked with the director. Both our missions will be limited and perhaps fail.”

Tom Hockensmith, a Polk County supervisor who serves on the 5th District correctional services board, said board members across the state are talking with their legislators about their opposition to the reorganization, which he also sees as a path toward privatizing community corrections.

“That would be in the cards long term,” he said. “Basically, it’s a power grab, a takeover.”

Sens. Tony Bisignano and Nate Boulton, both Polk County Democrats, grilled Skinner about the proposal last Wednesday during a Senate subcommittee meeting. Boulton said the change would disrupt programs that are working well.

“The whole point of community-based corrections is having community resources coming together to help people make these transitions,” Boulton told The Gazette on Friday. “Making this an extension of Corrections doesn’t have the same focus.”

Skinner told lawmakers Correctional Services directors need to be accountable to the state, not the districts, because the state provides the bulk of funding for supervision and programming.

“Would you stake your job on it?” Bisignano asked, adding that, if the reorganization goes forward, he will be watching to see if results are better or worse. Because Republicans have control of both the Iowa House and Senate, as well as the Governor’s Office, Democrats have little influence over what happens.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com