By C1 Staff
DES MOINES — A new state study projects a prison population growth of 39 percent by 2024.
The Sioux City Journal reports that the Department of Human Rights states that in their report they project the population hitting 11,317 by 2024 if current trends continue. This means female inmates would be 10 percent over the capacity of facilities; the male population would exceed capacity by about 37 percent.
“Absent policy reform, something would have to change,” said the report’s author, Sarah Johnson.
The state’s Department of Corrections operates nine prisons, which house 8,175 inmates in a space designed to accommodate 7,276 prisoners. Courts have been asked to intercede in the past in cases where overcrowding of prisons has become excessive.
A corrections spokesperson said officials are aware of the projections and are monitoring the data, but they’re not alarmed.
They’ve had success with managing the prison population and recidivism in the state is down.
“What we’ve done in the past when the forecast might show that we’re going to increase above what our capacity levels are, we’ve really put a lot of effort over the years into re-entry of preparing people sooner for release,” Fred Scaletta said.
According to the report, the factors driving the increase include mandatory minimum stays for certain felonies and tougher sentencing laws for sex offenders, among others.
It suggests that the state examine drug sentencing laws to make sure “those committed to prison for drug offenses could not be handled more effectively elsewhere or, perhaps, handled in prison for shorter periods of time.”
The director of research at the Department of Corrections said factors such as prison admissions and the length of mandatory minimum sentencing are beyond the department’s ability to address since they are under the purview of the Legislature and the governor.
“This forecast is letting us know that we may want to look at changes in policies and practices so that we can craft a different future, if we choose,” Lettie Prell said.