Comments on: Q&A With Prisons Director: Drug Charges Push Iowa Female Count To Record http://iowaindependent.com/298/qa-with-prisons-director-drug-charges-push-iowa-female-count-to-record Iowa politics, news and commentary Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:06:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: John Neff http://iowaindependent.com/298/qa-with-prisons-director-drug-charges-push-iowa-female-count-to-record/comment-page-1#comment-10521 John Neff Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:28:03 +0000 http://iowaindependent.com/298/qa-with-prisons-director-drug-charges-push-iowa-female-count-to-record#comment-10521 <strong>A recent improvement is that the DOC is giving more</strong> detailed information about persons sentenced to prison where the most serious offense type was drugs. At the beginning of the current fiscal year they made up 23.5% of the Iowa prison population and of that set of inmates 89.2% were convicted of drug trafficking, 8.6% for possession and 2.2% for some other drug offense. In the past they were all lumped together under drug offenses and in some data compilations they were combined with alcohol offenses and listed under chemical offenses.<br><br>One of the problems we have in dealing with prison crowding is that many people believe that the majority of the prisoners are serving a mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession. There were no Iowa prison inmates serving a mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession and there were 519 or 6.0% serving mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking. So people are insisting that we solve a problem that does not exist in one case and is much smaller that claimed in the other.<br><br>On the other hand we have evidence that many of the prisoners have significant alcohol/drug dependencies and that some of them financed their dependence with criminal activity (drug sales, property crimes and robbery). Some (but not all) have been treated in prison but if they do not have community aftercare after they are released from prison a high proportion will suffer a relapse which can lead to a parole violation or a new offense.<br><br>Attorney General Tom Miller has asked for a number of years for money for community drug treatment programs because it is the most cost effective way to reduce crime. It is far past time for us to listen to him. A recent improvement is that the DOC is giving more detailed information about persons sentenced to prison where the most serious offense type was drugs. At the beginning of the current fiscal year they made up 23.5% of the Iowa prison population and of that set of inmates 89.2% were convicted of drug trafficking, 8.6% for possession and 2.2% for some other drug offense. In the past they were all lumped together under drug offenses and in some data compilations they were combined with alcohol offenses and listed under chemical offenses.

One of the problems we have in dealing with prison crowding is that many people believe that the majority of the prisoners are serving a mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession. There were no Iowa prison inmates serving a mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession and there were 519 or 6.0% serving mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking. So people are insisting that we solve a problem that does not exist in one case and is much smaller that claimed in the other.

On the other hand we have evidence that many of the prisoners have significant alcohol/drug dependencies and that some of them financed their dependence with criminal activity (drug sales, property crimes and robbery). Some (but not all) have been treated in prison but if they do not have community aftercare after they are released from prison a high proportion will suffer a relapse which can lead to a parole violation or a new offense.

Attorney General Tom Miller has asked for a number of years for money for community drug treatment programs because it is the most cost effective way to reduce crime. It is far past time for us to listen to him.

]]> By: John Neff http://iowaindependent.com/298/qa-with-prisons-director-drug-charges-push-iowa-female-count-to-record/comment-page-1#comment-335 John Neff Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://iowaindependent.com/298/qa-with-prisons-director-drug-charges-push-iowa-female-count-to-record#comment-335 <strong>A recent improvement is that the DOC is giving more</strong> detailed information about persons sentenced to prison where the most serious offense type was drugs. At the beginning of the current fiscal year they made up 23.5% of the Iowa prison population and of that set of inmates 89.2% were convicted of drug trafficking, 8.6% for possession and 2.2% for some other drug offense. In the past they were all lumped together under drug offenses and in some data compilations they were combined with alcohol offenses and listed under chemical offenses. One of the problems we have in dealing with prison crowding is that many people believe that the majority of the prisoners are serving a mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession. There were no Iowa prison inmates serving a mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession and there were 519 or 6.0% serving mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking. So people are insisting that we solve a problem that does not exist in one case and is much smaller that claimed in the other. On the other hand we have evidence that many of the prisoners have significant alcohol/drug dependencies and that some of them financed their dependence with criminal activity (drug sales, property crimes and robbery). Some (but not all) have been treated in prison but if they do not have community aftercare after they are released from prison a high proportion will suffer a relapse which can lead to a parole violation or a new offense. Attorney General Tom Miller has asked for a number of years for money for community drug treatment programs because it is the most cost effective way to reduce crime. It is far past time for us to listen to him. A recent improvement is that the DOC is giving more detailed information about persons sentenced to prison where the most serious offense type was drugs. At the beginning of the current fiscal year they made up 23.5% of the Iowa prison population and of that set of inmates 89.2% were convicted of drug trafficking, 8.6% for possession and 2.2% for some other drug offense. In the past they were all lumped together under drug offenses and in some data compilations they were combined with alcohol offenses and listed under chemical offenses.

One of the problems we have in dealing with prison crowding is that many people believe that the majority of the prisoners are serving a mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession. There were no Iowa prison inmates serving a mandatory minimum sentence for drug possession and there were 519 or 6.0% serving mandatory minimum sentences for drug trafficking. So people are insisting that we solve a problem that does not exist in one case and is much smaller that claimed in the other.

On the other hand we have evidence that many of the prisoners have significant alcohol/drug dependencies and that some of them financed their dependence with criminal activity (drug sales, property crimes and robbery). Some (but not all) have been treated in prison but if they do not have community aftercare after they are released from prison a high proportion will suffer a relapse which can lead to a parole violation or a new offense.

Attorney General Tom Miller has asked for a number of years for money for community drug treatment programs because it is the most cost effective way to reduce crime. It is far past time for us to listen to him.

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