Iowa Addresses Prison Overcrowding

DES MOINES — Iowa prisons are overcrowded, but a construction program and coordination with the Board of Parole should reduce overcrowding, Department of Corrections Director John Baldwin told lawmakers Wednesday.
 
The prison population is 23 percent over capacity, Baldwin told the Transportation, Infrastructures and Capitals Appropriations Subcommittee.
 
Iowa’s nine prisons have a capacity of 7,209 but currently house 8,883 inmates, Baldwin said, an increase from 8,200 a year ago.

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