DRUG OFFENDERS CROWD STATE PRISONS

Iowa's war on drugs is having a major impact on the state's prison
population, which is forecast to grow by 52 percent to 12,318 inmates over
the next decade.

A new report by the Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning
shows the number of drug offenders entering Iowa's prisons has nearly
doubled over the past five years. During the fiscal year that ended June
30, there were a record 891 drug criminals admitted to the state's prisons,
compared to 466 drug convicts in 1996.

Drug crimes are the most common offense of new Iowa inmates, representing
27 percent of all prison admissions. Two-thirds have been involved with
methamphetamine, said Lettie Prell, a state criminal justice researcher.

Iowa's nine prisons on Monday held a total of 8,083 inmates. "Despite our
targeting of drug offenders beginning in the early 1980s, the admissions of
drug offenders to prison continues to go up," Prell said. "We know in
statistics that trend lines cannot go up forever; however, we are still
waiting for the trend line on drug offenses to change."

State officials had planned to establish a 100-bed drug and alcohol
treatment program at the Knoxville Veterans Affairs Medical Center early
next year for probation violators who would otherwise be headed to prison.
However, those plans are uncertain now because of state budget
difficulties, said Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of
Corrections.

In state prisons nationwide between 1990 and 1999, the number of drug
offenders increased by 69 percent to 251,200 inmates, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. Violent offenders accounted for 51 percent of
total growth, while drug criminals represented 20 percent.

Iowa Corrections Director W.L. "Kip" Kautzky said Monday he is particularly
concerned, given the state's budget troubles, that length of prison stays
by inmates has increased significantly since 1991. Another worry: About
one-fourth of all Iowa convicts are spending so much time behind bars that
they are eligible to be discharged without supervised parole upon their
release, according to Kautzky.

"As a practical matter, we have capacity for 6,772 inmates today," he said.
"They say that we are going to need capacity for 12,318 inmates. The math
is pretty clear. You are looking in round numbers at a need for about five
new 1,000-bed prisons."

Kautzky believes part of the problem can be addressed by having low-risk,
nonviolent offenders, such as bad-check writers and people convicted of
drug possession, have shorter stays in prison. He also wants more inmates
to be supervised on parole - working and receiving drug treatment - instead
of allowing them to discharge their sentences.

"If we allow our prisons to become too overcrowded, the feds are going to
do what they have done in the past, and that is to simply take over Iowa's
prison system," Kautzky said.

Iowa has had a precedent for releasing low-risk inmates early. During the
1980s, the state had a prison population limit "and there was no increase
in violent crime and no increase in the revocation rate of people who were
released," Prell said.

State Rep. Charles Larson, a Cedar Rapids Republican, is wary about
shortening prison stays. "I am afraid that we would begin to see some of
the terrible tragedies that we have seen in the past when inmates are
released early," he said.

Larson, chairman of the Iowa House Judiciary Committee and the state
chairman of the Republican Party, said he doesn't believe any new state
prisons will be built over the next two to three years. "But long range, if
that is what is necessary because of methamphetamine and other crimes being
committed in this state, then yes I will support" new prison construction,
he said.

The Rev. Carlos Jayne of Des Moines, lobbyist for the Iowa Justice Reform
Consortium, a coalition of activist groups, said it is a mistake to lock up
more low-risk, nonviolent convicts in a time of budget troubles. "It almost
seems ridiculous to be putting penny-ante drug people in prison instead of
in treatment when we are trying to fight terrorism," Jayne said.