Iowa’s prisons overcrowded, understaffed, security review shows

Memorials are placed March 27 near the front of the Anamosa State Penitentiary in Anamosa. The day before, inmates used hammers to attack prison staff members during a failed attempt to escape an Iowa prison, killing a nurse and correctional officer, kidnapping a third employee and severely injuring an inmate who intervened. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

A seven-month security review of Iowa’s prison system shows crowding and challenges recruiting and retaining staff create potential security risks in Iowa’s nine prisons.

The systemwide review was sparked by the March 23 murders of two employees at the Anamosa State Penitentiary by offenders Michael Dutcher and Thomas Woodard. The Iowa Corrections Department launched the investigation in May, following a request for proposals in which consultant CGL Companies, based in Florida, was selected to conduct the review.

Dutcher and Woodard both were convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for fatally striking Correctional Officer Robert McFarland and nurse Lorena Schulte in the head with prison-issued hammers. The offenders took another employee hostage briefly and seriously wounded another inmate.

Michael Aaron Dutcher appears for his Sept. 15 plea and sentence hearing with one of his attorneys, Sarah Hradek, at the Jones County Courthouse in Anamosa. Dutcher pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder for killing a corrections officer Robert McFarland, 46, of Ely, and registered nurse Lorena Schulte, 50, of Cedar Rapids, and one count each of attempted murder of another inmate McKinley Roby and second-degree kidnapping for holding dental assistant Lorie Matthes against her will during an escape attempt with another inmate Thomas Woodard. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Thomas Woodard listens to victim impact statements during Aug. 26 his sentencing in the Jones County Courthouse in Anamosa. Woodard pleaded earlier this month to two counts of first-degree murder killing a prison officer Robert McFarland, 46, of Ely, and registered nurse Lorena Schulte, 50, of Cedar Rapids, and one count each of attempted murder of a fellow inmate and second-degree kidnapping for holding dental assistant Lorie Matthes against her will. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

The Corrections Department did not make the entire security review public, instead releasing just a four-page summary and a timeline of events since March 23.

A point emphasized several times in the summary was Iowa’s prison system can’t recruit and retain enough correctional officers and nurses to adequately staff its prisons.

The Iowa Department of Corrections “would benefit from bolstering staffing to meet current facility security requirements and the challenges of managing a modern correctional system,” CGL Companies wrote in a four-page summary. “Existing staffing gaps create high levels of overtime that exacerbate the already difficult issue of staff retention.”

CGL recommends using retention bonuses to keep employees and continuing time-and-a-half pay for nurses. The consultant says the department also should enhance and standardize training, key to keeping good employees.

Iowa DOC Safety and Security Review Summary by Gazette Online on Scribd

The Iowa Legislature in May approved $20 million in additional money for the Corrections Department, with a large share to be used to fill vacancies. It is not clear whether the security review addressed staffing levels before or after the cash infusion.

The summary notes Iowa’s prison system — unlike those in other states reducing offender population — continues to be overcapacity. As of Dec. 13, the system was 16 percent overbooked, with 8,106 offenders in facilities with a total capacity of 6,990, the summary states.

“This level of crowding exacerbates existing operational challenges in security, offender management, and service delivery, while placing significant additional pressure on custody staff,” the summary states. “The additional workload and heightened tension created by crowding is a major factor in the Department’s current staff recruitment and retention issues.”

The summary does not give any recommendations for reducing crowding in the facilities.

Community members watch a March 27 procession of emergency vehicles in honor of Department of Corrections officer Robert McFarland through the streets of Ely. McFarland, a corrections officer at Anamosa State Penitentiary and a lieutenant with the Ely Fire Department, as well as nurse Lorena Schulte, were killed by two inmates in the infirmary during an escape attempt. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Because Dutcher and Woodard used hammers to kill Schulte and McFarland and tried to cut through prison bars with a metal grinder, the review focused in part on access to tools in Iowa’s prisons and on offender work roles.

Anamosa prison murders timeline by Gazette Online on Scribd

CGL found the Corrections Department needs to develop a better screening process to match offenders’ behavior history and characteristics to their work assignments.

“At each facility, we found varying levels of tool and toxic chemical control practices,” the consultant noted. “To improve consistency of the control of toxic chemicals we recommend transitioning to a system of centralized storage and issuance of chemicals/toxics at each facility. To better facilitate offender movement, the IDOC should institute consistent inmate movement protocols.”

Since the attack, Iowa prison staff have restricted offender movement, particularly within the Anamosa prison, which is maximum/medium security. Fewer inmates are involved in work training and several apprenticeship programs have been eliminated because they involve working with tools.

Corrections Director Beth Skinner said in a prepared statement the agency plans to work “hand-in-hand with our facilities around the state to implement” recommendations made in CGL’s report.

Some lawmakers questioned the selection of CGL, whose subsidiary, CGL Facility Management, paid a $750,000 settlement in 2018 related to a Mississippi bribery scandal involving a state corrections official, the Des Moines Register reported. Corrections officials told the Register they did not have a problem with the lack of disclosure because it was only CGL Facilities Management, not CGL Companies, involved in the Mississippi incident.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com