Articles Tagged: Iowa Department of Corrections

Two staff members at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison were injured last week when they were assaulted by inmates, according to a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Corrections.

Republican lawmakers are pushing legislation to keep offenders behind bars longer and expand Iowa’s sex offender registry, but corrections officials and advocates warn the proposals could worsen overcrowding, reduce parole supervision and create sentence-calculation errors that undermine public safety.

Iowa’s Office of Ombudsman, which investigates complaints related to local and state government, opened 6,266 cases this year. Of those, 56 percent involved the Iowa Department of Corrections, and 24 percent involved the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

State agencies are pre-filing bills ahead of the 2026 Iowa legislative session, signaling debates over kratom regulation, prison safety, election ads and a renewed fight over the future of Iowa’s historical archives in Iowa City.

The state corrections department confirmed Wednesday it would not accept any of the bids submitted by companies that responded to a state request for delivery of health care services in Iowa’s nine prisons.

The state no longer is considering contracting with a private company to provide health care services in Iowa’s nine prisons, according to a union leader whose group represents prison officers.

Iowa’s recidivism rate hit a 10-year low in the state’s most recent figures, but criminal justice experts say recidivism rates are limited in their portrayal of a criminal justice or state correctional system.

A state request for proposals sheds lights on the reasons why Iowa is considering privatizing its prison health care services, potentially entering an arena that has faced issues in other states, according to advocates.

According to an email sent by the Department of Corrections, the state will issue a request for proposals “soon” to seek a private company to provide health care services in the state’s prisons, potentially impacting roughly 200 nurses, psychiatrists and other corrections health care workers.

A sharply divided Iowa Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court’s decision dismissing a former prisoner’s claim for damages due to wrongful imprisonment.

Also in the Capitol Notebook, a new warden has been named for Iowa State Penitentiary.

A state corrections officer fired for allegedly assaulting an individual at the state-run Ottumwa Residential Facility is not entitled to jobless benefits, a judge has ruled.

A former Johnson County emergency management and fire official who was serving a prison sentence for fatally shooting his girlfriend in 2011, died last week. Thomas Lee Hansen Sr., 84, died Jan. 22.

Reynolds issued the order just days ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged hard-line immigration policies and mass deportations.

Union leaders called on the state officials to provide more funding, better pay and more staffing as well as restore bargaining rights to correctional officers in the wake of the latest inmate attack at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.