Probation revocation fills prison beds

Andrew Boettger, the chair of the Iowa Board of Parole, has set a goal of reducing the prison population by about 400 inmates per year for two years. This would involve the increased use of parole and transfers to residential work release. The two most important types of prison admissions are a court commitment upon conviction on a new charge and revocation of probation.

I study the history of prisons and I used an Iowa Department of Corrections prison movement spread sheet for 1980 to 2016 and community corrections populations from the Department of Corrections quick facts posted on its website to determine that whenever there was an increase in the number of Iowa prison beds they were immediately filled. Because the beds were promptly filled and there was a corresponding dip in the community supervision population, I have concluded that most of the new beds were filled by probation revocations.

What I think will happen is the Board of Parole will empty the beds and District Court judges will fill them by revocations of probation. To prevent that, the prison population reduction has to be slower than 80 inmates per year.

John Neff

Iowa City

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