Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa Department of Corrections director Beth Skinner says the recidivism rate among individuals who’ve been released from prison has dropped for a third straight year — meaning there’s a decline in the number of people violating the terms of their parole or commuting a crime that sends them back to prison.
Skinner says there are several reasons the rate is declining, like focusing on getting substance abuse or mental health treatment for those who are at highest risk and improving the skills of those who’ve been sentenced to prison.
There are 30 different registered apprenticeship programs in the Department of Corrections, including training to be plumbers, welders and electricians.
Sometimes up to half the people who ENTER Iowa’s prison system each year do not have a high school diploma. Skinner says among those who are released, 60 percent have completed high school.
Due to the government reorganization plan the governor signed into law this spring, Iowa’s community-based corrections system is now part of the Iowa Department of Corrections. Skinner says that may have prevent people released from one of the state’s nine prisons from re-offending.
The rate at which released offenders were being sent back to prison had been climbing — to as high as 40 percent four years go — but Skinner says she’s confident the recidivism rate in Iowa’s correctional system will continue to decline because of the buy-in from prison employees.
Skinner has been the director of the Iowa Department of Corrections since June of 2019. There are nearly 41-thousand people in Iowa’s correctional system today — only a fifth of whom are in a state prison. The rest are under direct supervision in a community setting, like a work release program or halfway house.
