TOUGHER LAWS SWELL INMATE POPULATION

Iowa's prisons among fastest-filling in nation

Iowa taxpayers' annual bill to run prisons will rise within eight years to
match the current value of full scholarships for more than 31,000 students
at the state's public univer-sities.

The state, which faces a doubling in the number of inmates by 2008, has more
than tripled the Department of Corrections budget since 1985.

Iowa spent $90 million to build three prisons that opened in the past three
years.

It's not enough. That money is only a small down payment on what will be
needed in the next decade if Iowa's tough sentencing laws are not changed
and other trends hold.

Some state leaders worry that prisons will begin to take money away from
schools as the cost of punishing criminals consumes millions more dollars
each year. Others think the money is well-spent to ensure public safety.

Iowa's prison population and costs are booming because of a crackdown on
crime that has lasted more than a decade. The crackdown is a national trend,
but the effect is pronounced in Iowa.

A Des Moines Register examination of the prison system and budget found:

* Growth of the state's inmate population in fiscal 1998 was the
sixth-fastest in the nation, despite Iowa's having one of the lowest crime
rates.

* The rate at which Iowa imprisons African-Americans is the highest among
all states, with blacks, who constitute 2 percent of Iowa's population,
making up one-fourth of the inmate population.

* Fifty-eight percent of Iowa's inmates are nonviolent offenders.

* Within the prisons, about 2 percent of the budget goes toward education
programs. Many inmates spend long, idle hours doing nothing meaningful.

* Addiction treatment programs behind bars take up even less money than
education, even though studies show most inmates have problems with alcohol
or other drugs.

Projections show that the state faces building more multimillion-dollar
prisons, then spending millions more to run them:

* Iowa has 7,300 prisoners, a number that has nearly tripled since 1980.
Projections show that, under current laws, the prison population will soar
to 14,500 inmates by 2008. That would force the state to spend an additional
$175 million to build at least six more 750-bed prisons, according to the
nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

* The Iowa Department of Corrections' budget for the fiscal year that
started Thursday is $235 million.

Of that, $170 million goes just to run the prisons, with the rest going
mostly to community corrections and administration. The $170 million is
projected to grow by 50 percent by 2008, to $256 million.

How much money is that? With undergraduate tuition, fees, room, board and
books currently running about $8,180 a year at the University of Iowa, it's
enough to cover the costs for a year for more than 31,000 students. At Iowa
State University, the tab runs about $7,875; at the University of Northern
Iowa, the bill is $7,643.

Of course, the state doesn't pick up those college costs, and under any
policies, the government would face substantial expenses for prisons.

But Iowa Corrections Director W.L. "Kip" Kautzky has warned that as spending
on prisons increases, competition for state budget money will increase
between prisons and other programs, including state aid to public schools.

Des Moines businessman Marvin Pomerantz, a Republican who served on the Iowa
Board of Regents and was chairman of a governor's commission on education,
said Iowa should reconsider its approach.

"What the research shows is that the more education that individuals
receive, the less likely they are to be involved in criminal activity that
results in them being sentenced to a prison term," Pomerantz said. "As far
as I am concerned, I would recommend more money to education, and more money
to education sooner. There is no question that it will take a major change
in emphasis and direction, but we need to do it."

State Rep. Teresa Garman, R-Ames, who is co-chairwoman of a legislative
prison budget subcommittee, said she wants to find ways to curb prison
spending while protecting public safety.

"I am afraid that we have gotten on this get-tough-on-crime thing a little
too heavy," she said. "But I really think dangerous people belong behind
bars and not out in the community."

Former Iowa Prison Ombudsman Ray Cornell of Des Moines, a private
investigator who keeps in touch with Iowa inmates, has a blunt, critical
view.

"I am a pragmatist, and right now this system, in terms of the courts, the
prisons and the parole authority, is all in shambles," Cornell said. "This
price tag is only going to get bigger unless somebody steps in and takes
control of it."

Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, vowed that Iowa's inmate population and state
spending on prisons won't continue such a dramatic upward spiral. "That's
not going to happen," he said last week.

More money is already being spent on Iowa's community corrections programs
to reduce the large number of parole and probation violators being sent to
prison, and there is evidence that approach has begun to work, Vilsack said.
He also supports strong programs for drug treatment and education for
inmates to help them stay out of prison after they are released.

Sentencing Questions

Still, the Legislature this year approved, and Vilsack signed, a potential
99-year sentence for people who sell the stimulant methamphetamine to
minors. New felonies now carry potential prison sentences.

Over the past 12 months, Iowa's prison population has held steady, primarily
because the Iowa Board of Parole has released more inmates who aren't
considered likely to kill or rob people. Corrections Director Kautzky said
this is simply a lull in the storm. The long-term trend undeniably shows a
huge increase in Iowa's inmate population, he said.

"What we have is a temporary breathing point," Kautzky said. "But the parole
board can't always be the gatekeepers and solve the problem. Considering
that prison admissions are way, way up compared to a few years ago, you will
continue to see the demand for prison space."

Experts agree that a key ingredient in the huge growth of Iowa's prison
population is tough sentencing practices that require long prison terms.

A state commission is in the midst of an in-depth study of Iowa sentencing
laws. It is due to make recommendations before the 2000 session of the
Legislature, which convenes in January. State Sen. Andy McKean, R-Anamosa,
is the commission's co-chairman.

While McKean declined to predict what recommendations will be proposed, he
said there is little doubt that current sentencing laws often have been
approved simply in response to a well-publicized crime or incident that has
caught the public's attention.

"We have a sentencing system in place that isn't necessarily consistent, and
there is some concern that there is some lack of proportionality, and that
some of our practices need review," McKean said.

The commission's study will include an examination of mandatory prison terms
for serious offenses and alternatives, such as community service, for some
less-serious offenses.

"I think we are beginning to recognize that prison isn't always the only and
best answer to punishment," McKean said.

Vilsack said he is willing to work with the Legislature to review sentencing
laws. In addition, he favors using some of the state's share of money from a
legal settlement with the tobacco industry to enhance health-care programs
so that people with mental-health problems or substance-abuse addictions
aren't sent prison.

"85 Percent" Law

Vilsack was a member of the Iowa Senate when one of the most significant
examples of the Legislature's push to get tough on crime took effect in July
1996, when parole was abolished for people convicted of five crimes:
second-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, second-degree sexual abuse,
and first- and second-degree armed robbery. Those people are now required to
serve 85 percent of their prison sentences.

The effect of the "85 percent" law is that some prisoners will spend many
more years behind bars than they would have if they had been convicted
before 1996.

For instance, a person convicted in the past of simple robbery - someone who
didn't use a weapon - would have been sentenced to 10 years but would have
served an average of three years and nine months before being granted
parole. Now a person convicted of the same crime - which could be as simple
as a shoplifter scuffling with a security guard - must serve 8BD years in
prison with no chance for parole, said Lettie Prell, a researcher for the
Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning.

Another example is vehicular homicide - killing someone while driving. In
the 1980s, a conviction carried a five-year prison term. The penalty was
increased to 10 years in 1990. In 1997, the term was increased to 25 years,
although a person convicted could still be paroled earlier. Then, in 1998,
state lawmakers decided that if someone was convicted of both vehicular
homicide and leaving the scene of an accident, the offender must serve more
than 21 years in prison with no chance for parole.

An Old Problem

Polk County Attorney John Sarcone, who with his staff helps send more people
to prison than any other Iowa prosecutor, said state leaders have been wise
to expand the prison system. The state was woefully short of prison space
for years, he said.

During the early and mid-1980s, lawmakers froze the maximum number of
inmates who could be held in Iowa's prisons, which repeatedly forced the
Iowa Board of Parole to grant emergency paroles.

"With the methamphetamine problem that we have and what it spawns in terms
of crime, we need space, there is no question about it," Sarcone said.

Over the past two to three years, violent crime has been significantly
reduced in the Des Moines area because 57 major gang members and drug
dealers have been sent to prison, particularly to federal prisons, said Des
Moines police Chief William Moulder.

If state and federal prosecutors continue to put criminals behind bars on a
regular basis, "there are a whole lot of people who will be smart enough not
to commit a crime," Moulder said.

In northwest Iowa, Sioux County Sheriff Jim Schwiesow of Orange City said he
has no doubt that most Iowa inmates belong behind bars.

"They have been given many chances before they go to prison. First, they put
them on probation, and then they put them on intensive probation, and then
they put them in a violators' program. Eventually, the judge just throws up
his hands and he says, "There's no other place for you but prison," and he's
right," said Schwiesow, a former vice chairman of the Iowa Board of
Corrections.

Other Iowa leaders said they also want to protect the state's residents. But
they believe the prison population explosion is more closely tied to state
lawmakers' desire to look tough on crime than to a genuine interest in sound
public policy.

"It is the poor and minorities that are in jail, for the most part," said
Rudy Simms, executive director of the National Conference of Community and
Justice in Des Moines. "There is no justice in the criminal justice system.
Mandatory sentencing is taking people who are not very dangerous, putting
them behind bars and ruining their lives."

Former Iowa Prison Ombudsman Cornell said Iowa's news media share
responsibility for the problem because a constant drumbeat of crime coverage
overemphasizes the issue.

"The media is keeping people hysterical. Proportionately, do we have that
much crime here? No, we don't," Cornell said.

According to 1996 federal crime statistics, the latest available, Iowa
ranked 42nd nationally in total crime and 47th in its murder rate.

Last year, Iowa had a prison incarceration rate of 260 inmates per 100,000
residents, which was 38th nationally. A decade earlier, in 1988, Iowa had a
prison incarceration rate of 107 inmates per 100,000 population, which was
44th nationally.

State leaders need to reconsider some fundamental issues of liberty and
freedom, contends Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties
Union.

"You could take every person in the southern tier of Iowa and throw them in
prison and we would have a safer place, wouldn't we? The thing that is hard
to convey to people is that being secure is not the only value," Stone said.
"If you really want to be secure, you can go to China and live in a police
state."

Some Iowans fall in the middle of the prison-expansion debate.

Barbara Link is a survivor of crime. Her son, Dennis, 38, a professional
musician, was stabbed to death in Des Moines in October 1995. The man
convicted of the slaying is serving a mandatory life sentence.

"When you commit murder, you are lucky that you don't get the death penalty,
which I don't approve of, so you do need to spend the rest of your life in
prison," Link said.

However, Link's attitude has been tempered by six trips to the Mitchellville
women's state prison. She has spoken to small groups of women being prepared
for release.

"I come away from there so thankful, thinking, "There but for the grace of
God go I," " she said. "What happened in these women's lives way back that
brought them to where they are today?"

Link believes there should be more emphasis on community corrections
programs, because otherwise far too many Iowans will go to prison.

"But on the other hand," she said, "people do need to pay for what they have
done."