Costs increase at Iowa state institutions

DES MOINES - Yearly costs to operate Iowa state institutions providing human services and those housing criminal offenders rose over the past five fiscal years, according to two separate state audit reports issued Thursday.

State Auditor Mary Mosiman's office issued a combined report on the institutions under the control of the Iowa Department of Corrections, indicating the average cost per inmate at Iowa's nine prisons ranged from $21,167 at the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City to $55,847 at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2013.

The average yearly cost per inmate systemwide that fiscal year was $32,915, up from $31,384 in fiscal 2009, when Iowa prisoners were housing nearly 5,000 more inmates and had 403 more employees on staff, according to the auditor's report.

State general fund expenditures for Iowa's nine prison totaled about $270 million is fiscal 2013, a level that was up $7.8 million from the previous fiscal year but down about 1.1 percent for the five-year period dating back to fiscal 2009.

'I think it shows that they're working hard to control their costs,” said Andy Nielsen, a spokesman for the auditor's office.

The audit report indicates that cost at the Oakdale facility went up while other institutions saw declines, because inmates with severe behavioral or mental health issues were transferred there. Also, the corrections agency managed to contain costs by centralizing medication purchases and some accounting duties during the five-year study period.

The nine institutions under the direction of the state Department of Human Services saw average annualized cost per resident/patient range from $108,691 at the Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders to $335,807 at the Woodward Resource Center and $473,718 at the Mental Health Institute in Independence in fiscal 2013.

Overall, total state general-fund expenditures for the DHS institutions decreased by 3.5 percent during the five-year period beginning in fiscal 2009 to about $225 million. The average number of residents/patients decreased 18.1 percent from 1,072 to 878 over the period, and the average daily cost per resident/patient increased 17.8 percent, from $596.05 to $702.32, the auditor's office found.

Nielsen said it is more difficult to control costs in the social services and mental health facilities that provide round-the-clock, 24/7 care for a myriad of methods and treatments.

'In the mental health arena, you're not only paying for the room and board and subsistence costs, but you're also paying for the medical component of it, and that's a big area obviously. We know medical costs are increasing,” he said.

Copies of both reports can be found at http://auditor.iowa.gov/reports/1464-0000-0R00.pdf and at http://auditor.iowa.gov/reports/1462-8990-BR00.pdf at the State Auditor's website.

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