Iowa again ranks among worst for racial disparity behind bars

Black individuals make up 4 percent of Iowa’s population but account for a “whopping” 25 percent of its incarcerated population — again confirming that the state is one of the worst in the nation for racial disparities in who gets locked up, new research shows.

The Iowa data from the Prison Policy Initiative also shows Black individuals are sent to prison at a rate of 9.1 times higher than white people in the state, Wanda Bertram, communications strategist with the initiative, told The Gazette. The nonprofit, non-partisan organization provides research about criminal justice reform and mass incarceration in the United States.

The Prison Policy’s updated charts and graphs show Iowa isn’t alone — every other state locks up Black people at a rate at least double that of white individuals, too. New Jersey and Wisconsin come in at the highest rates in the nation of 11.9 and 11.8 — compared with Iowa’s 9.1 — according to the data.

The ACLU of Iowa noted last month in response to the Prison Policy’s data that Iowa tied with Utah, Nebraska and Minnesota for the 9.1 rate, which just “affirms yet again” that Iowa ranks among the worst in the country for racial disparities in its prisons and jails. Other studies such as, one in 2021 by The Sentencing Project, also found Iowa to be among the worst.

"The Iowa Department of Corrections is committed to equal justice within our correctional system and creating opportunities for safer communities,“ Corrections Director Beth Skinner said in a statement. ”As a data driven agency, we use detailed analytics to develop action plans that can then be implemented to address any prevalent disparities within our control."

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Overall, 17,000 people are behind bars in Iowa’s nine state prisons, 96 county jails, juvenile detention centers and in out-of-state federal prisons because there are no federal prisons in the state. There are 8,600 Iowans in state prisons, 4,100 in jails, 440 youth in juvenile detention and 3,600 in federal prisons.

The Prison Policy’s data is an “apples-to apples” state comparisons, using Bureau of Justice Statistics, instead of individual states’ departments of correction, because not all states will provide the data and it’s not always provided in a useful format, according to the nonprofit.

The data also showed Iowa’s disparity numbers stand out internationally when compared with other founding NATO countries. The United States has an incarceration rate of 664 per 100,000 of the population and Iowa has a rate of 582 per 100,000, which includes those in prisons, jails, immigration detention and juvenile facilities.

Iowa’s neighboring states don’t fare much better on incarceration rates: South Dakota is 824 per 100,000; Nebraska is 601; Missouri is 664; and Wisconsin is 668. Minnesota is much lower with 342, but the other countries have significantly lower rates of 129 and below, according to the data.

In comparing Iowa’s residents and incarcerated populations, the data states Black and Hispanic people are overrepresented, while white people are underrepresented, behind bars.

Hispanic individuals make up 6 percent of the state’s residents, while 7 percent of the prison population and 9 percent of the jail population in Iowa is Hispanic. On the other hand, about 84 percent of Iowa residents are white, but 64 percent of the prison and jail populations is white.

“Study after study has shown Iowa is not doing a good job at addressing the racial disparities when it comes to incarcerations,” said Veronica Fowler, ACLU of Iowa communications director.

Fowler said the national ACLU created a plan — Smart Justice 50-State Blueprints project — in 2019 to reduce mass incarceration. It’s a multiyear effort to reduce the prison and jail populations by 50 percent and to combat racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

The blueprint projected Iowa and others could “dramatically” reduce its prison population with a few “sensible” reforms, including decriminalizing drug possession; expanding social services and treatment for mental health and substance use; reforming the pretrial system to enhance constitutional protections and eliminating “wealth-based discrimination” by restricting cash-only bails; and enacting parole reform to expand access to early release.

The blueprint included an overview of Iowa’s prisons’ and jails’ populations, including an analysis on who is being sent to jail and prison and the racial disparities that are present, what drive people into the system, how long people spend behind bars and why people are imprisoned for so long.

Fowler said that Iowa also ranks among the worst states for Black individuals arrested for marijuana possession, with a Black person being 7.3 times more likely to be arrested than a white person, even though studies show both groups use at nearly the same rate.

Iowa lawmakers and Gov. Kim Reynolds worked together to pass significant social justice legislation in 2020, but a year later no bills for racial equity were brought forward, including banning racial profiling by police, which was proposed by Reynolds.

Reynolds established a committee to discuss social justice proposals between 2020 and 2021. The committee met five times and made three recommendations for reforms to collect data on race and ethnicity from law enforcement stops; analyze and study the data, and provide annual reports on the findings; and ban disparate treatment in law enforcement activities and the delivery of police services.

Another report, filed in December 2020 by the state human rights department, also recommended steps be taken to end racial profiling, and also recommended legislators examine policies designed to eliminate racial disparities in the adult and juvenile criminal justice systems.

None of these recommendations made it into bills in 2021 or after.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com