Articles Tagged: Iowa prisons

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.

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.

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.

Also, Iowa AG Bird joins lawsuit against federal law to cap rates and limit fees on phone calls by inmates

Iowa offenders who cause a death must pay $150,000 in restitution, according to a law enacted in 1997, but some Eastern Iowa victims say it’s not a priority to help them. They realize the offenders are spending life in prison, in most cases, and doubt they will receive much of it.

“Art from the Inside Out” showcases art made using a variety of mediums, including poetry, painting, sculptures, pencil drawings and others. All of the artists whose art is displayed in the show are people who have been or are still incarcerated in jails or prisons in Iowa.

Black individuals make up only 4 percent of Iowa’s population but are 25 percent of the prisons populations, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Black people are sent to prisons at a rate of 9.1 times higher than whites, the data shows.

At an unemployment benefits hearing, none of the records that were subpoenaed were offered into evidence by the Department of Corrections.

Iowa has named Michelle Waddle, deputy warden from the Anamosa State Penitentiary, to become warden of the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville.

The State Appeal Board has approved paying Newton Correctional Facility employees back pay for the time it took for them to take COVID tests during the height of the pandemic.

Eastern Iowa officials question whether the Department of Corrections should take over community-based corrections after missteps on parole decisions.

A prisoner and three staff members at the Anamosa State Penitentiary were taken to the hospital Saturday night after being exposed to an “unknown substance” at the prison.

Smith was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. Wednesday after being admitted earlier in the week “for an acute illness related to a chronic medical condition”

The state decided to outsource personal mail processing to Pigeonly Corrections after an increase in contraband, including drugs, coming into the state prisons through mail. State will pay about $275,000 a year.