Iowa's Recommendations

The Iowa legislator is reviewing a $250 million plan to renovate the Iowa prison system, according to the Des Moines Register. This would include building more prisons and some money for community based programs. The report also concluded that many of the prisons do not have enough money, due to budget cuts, to help those prisoners with drug or alcohol problems.

Iowa has a unique opportunity to teach the larger states, like California, a way to do deal with prison overpopulation. The Hawkeye state has an epidemic of methamphetamine addicts, which affects 213 of every 100,000 according to the Drug and Alcohol Services Information System. This puts the state third most among all states, just behind Oregon and Hawaii.

Therefore, the room for improvement in rehabilitation centers and halfway houses are there for the state. If the legislature uses that $250 million on drug programs then the possibility of curbing overcrowding is there, but the state needs to try.

And if it succeeds then hopefully other, larger, states will take notice and use Iowa as an example of progress and follow in its footsteps.