Iowa senator worries budget talks may stall corrections funding

A co-leader of a legislative budget panel that funds Iowa's correctional faculties expressed concern today that a protracted budget impasse could adversely impact the state's prison system.

“We are on the verge of going from failing to pay bills owed to hundreds of Iowa small businesses to endangering the lives of the prison guards who keep us safe,” Sen. Tom Hancock, D-Epworth, co-chairman of the House-Senate budget subcommittee on justice systems, said in a statement issued Monday. “It is time to put the needs of Iowans first.”

Today's inmate count at Iowa prisons stands at 9,001 today, which represented a 25 percent overcrowding level for a system designed to house 7,209 offenders. Hancock noted that staffing levels within the state Department of Corrections have been falling, from 3,064 in fiscal 2009 to the current level of 2,820.

Hancock said he was concerned Iowa's prisons could be impacted if the split-control Legislature and Gov. Terry Branstad cannot reach agreements on supplemental funding to finish the current fiscal year or state spending levels for the fiscal 2012 budget year. A supplemental appropriations bill that includes more than $14 million to operate the state's correctional facilities through June 30 has stalled in a House-Senate conference committee. Other funding in that measure would cover a backlog of unpaid bills owed to attorneys and public defenders who provide legal services for indigent defendants.

“Unless we get this job done, Iowa's state prisons will run out of money at the end of May and prison employees will be laid off,” Hancock said. “I'm concerned that the lack of basic agreement between Gov. Branstad and the Republican leaders of the Iowa House that is preventing the state from paying its bills with regard to indigent defense will also affect the operation of our prisons. It is time for both sides to settle their differences and get serious about governing.”

Last week, John Baldwin, director of the corrections agency, said he would like to see the $14 million in supplemental money earmarked to his agency yet this fiscal year sooner rather than later. He said the supplemental money would ensure his agency can keep its current staffing levels and fiscal 2012 plans put forward by Branstad and legislators could fund up to 43 new correctional officers next fiscal year.

The largest state employees' union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61, has urged state officials to “get serious” about addressing staffing issues at the state's prisons.