Beth Skinner

Henderson:

Iowa correctional facilities are almost 20% over capacity. We'll talk with Beth Skinner, the director of the Iowa department of corrections about those challenges and more on this edition of Iowa press

Voiceover:

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation. The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's highway, bridge and municipal utility infrastructure. Fuel Iowa is a voice and a resource for Iowa's fuel industry. Our members offer a diverse range of products, including fuel, grocery, and convenience items. They help keep Iowans on the move in rural and urban communities. Together, we fuel Iowa. Small businesses are the backbone of Iowa's communities, and they are backed by Iowa banks. With advice, loans and financial services, banks across Iowa are committed to showing small businesses the way to a stronger tomorrow. Learn more at iowabankers.com.

Voiceover:

For decades. Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and news makers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating 50 years of broadcast excellence on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, August 26th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

Henderson:

Our guest today began at the Iowa Department of Corrections as an intern in 2002. In 2019. Governor Reynolds appointed her to be the director of the Department of Corrections. She did have a brief sojourn in that career at the department. She was part of a national group that was focused on recidivism. Beth Skinner, welcome to Iowa Press.

Skinner:

Thank you for the opportunity. Kay.

Henderson:

Also joining the conversation, are Clay Masters of Iowa Public Radio and Erin Murphy of the Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

Murphy:

Director Skinner. Recently the department changed its mail policy for mail that comes in to inmates. I wanted to have you talk about that change and what went into that and why.

Skinner:

Sure. So let me take you back a couple years. So during the pandemic there was an influx of K2. Not only coming into the Iowa Department of Corrections, but we were seeing it nationally.

Murphy:

And K2 is...

Skinner:

K2 is a synthetic drug. It can cause it's, it's made of various toxic chemical compounds. It can change quite frequently. So it's very hard to track. But it, it also causes erratic behavior, paranoia. It causes serious physical issues. People get very sick, they vomit. And so we saw this influx, so we investigated it. And what we realized at Clarinda, there was basically over six individuals involved in K2, where they were it was getting distributed, they were ingesting it, but it was coming through the U.S. Mail. So we wanted to be proactive. We didn't want anyone to be, you know, lose their life. We didn't wanna make, we didn't want our, our prison to be unsafe. Our number one goal is to make sure that our prison is safe as possible. By changing the mail process. It is proactive again, one and two, it's gonna keep people safe. Because I will tell you, I've seen videos and instances of individuals that are under K2 and it's scary. So that's why we did, because we wanted to - one life would be too much if someone lost their life because of K2.

Murphy:

And I imagine that's a, a balancing act, right? Because, and I'm wondering how you weigh that for a policy like that, because this mail is also, you know, some of these inmates only window to the outside world and, and there's research that shows that people who maintain contact with the outside world do better when they get out of prison. How do you kind of balance those things while also wanting to keep facility safe, like you said?

Henderson:

That's a good point, Erin. So let me tell you, is that, so these, the letters, the postcards, the pictures that they're getting scanned look like the originals. They're in color copies. And I wanna share, too, you with you all that we know the importance of family. We know the importance of prosocial support. We know 95% of people are gonna get out. We know the importance of families. So I will tell you that we make sure that they have that connection. We also added video visitation after the pandemic, cuz we realize that connection with family is gonna help them be successful when they get out in their communities.

Henderson:

And so for people are just joining this concept, mail is going to a facility in Las Vegas, correct?

Skinner:

Correct.

Henderson:

And then it's being digitized and then presented as a copy, correct?

Skinner:

Correct. So the process is, is that they send the mail, the family members', loved ones, send the mail to Las Vegas.

Henderson:

The company we're working with is Pigeonly. They have to have it scanned within 24 hours and sent back out to the prisons. So again, they go back and color copies. And right now we've been implement implementing this for a month. So we are really watching carefully to how, see how long the mail's taking to get to, from the facility to our prisons to make sure there's not any extended delays. Because we know the importance of, of family members, you know, getting pictures of their kids and letters from their children or their, their loved ones. It's a big part of them, you know, part of their being incarcerated is, is having that connection to the outside.

Masters:

Last year. We're gonna switch here. The Department of Corrections was in the news a lot in the state because of the death of two staff members at the prison in Anamosa in a failed escape attempt. There was a report that came out. There was conversation about some of the communication issues within the prison in Anamosa. Staffing levels. What's an update on what's been done since that report came out at the end of last year?

Henderson:

Sure. I will say, first and foremost, I want to give kudos to our administration and our staff. They have worked endlessly to, to make sure we make the recommendation that CGL made, which is the company, that we executed those recommendations. So I'll just give you kinda a list of few things that we have accomplished. We hired a security operations director. We hired an additional 85 full-time employees. We added canines. We added the mail process. We added a compliance office, a training office. We had a security summit. We also had we hired a recruitment retention specialist. We really, really, and that's only, it's only been over a year and we've put all these pieces into place. And another thing I think that's important too, is we brought pre-service back, which is our, our academy. So it's more centralized and there's fidelity to the work. So our, our staff get the training they need to be as safe as they can be.

Masters:

And are you talking generally for department of corrections, or are you talking specifically to Anamosa?

Skinner:

General to, yes.

Masters:

So what's the current staffing level at the Anamosa prison, and how has that changed?

Skinner:

Sure. You know, we still have numerous vacancies open right now. We are working very, very hard to fill those positions. You may have seen on the radio commercials billboards we've been at the fair, job fairs university, we are really putting our foot on the gas to recruit. And you know, we're working hard. And so we added a, an additional 40 full-time positions. We'd added a lot of security infrastructure at Anamosa around cameras, body scanners fiber, things like that. So, we did some more fencing. So we've made a lot of improvements since then.

Masters:

And as far as funding levels, how has that changed and how has that helped for recruitment for staff? And what kind of a pitch are you giving as to why somebody would wanna be working in the department of corrections? As somebody who started as an intern.

Skinner:

Yes, I was gonna say, that's a great segue for that.

Masters:

There you go.

Skinner:

So, you know, I started in early 2000, and some people just stumble into corrections. I thought I was gonna be a police officer. And I did it cause I had a class I had to take. And I fell in love with corrections. It was...I left for like a short period of time as Kay mentioned. But I've been working at corrections almost 20 years. And I will tell you, it is the most rewarding career anyone can have. I just, you know, it's, it's challenging. Every day is different. You are a public servant. You're serving your community. You have a family. You have a team. You're giving back. To me that it's and you got great, you got great benefits. You're gonna have a healthy retirement. Just all the things that go along with it. It's just a very, it's an excellent job. It's a great career. And I'm so proud to be sitting in this chair today as the director of corrections.

Masters:

And so have funding levels gone up to the point where you can make more hires, you can do that kind of work? Do you feel like you're getting the kind of support that you need?

Skinner:

Absolutely. You know, we received you know, 20 million, 20 million from the legislature and we have used those funds. We have been very diligent with the taxpayer dollars. We are, like I said, we were able to add an additional 85 full-time positions. Like I said, canines compliance officers, a security director. We really shored up our personnel with that money. And it's been used very wisely and we are very, very, excuse me, appreciative of those funds.

Henderson:

What about communications ability among people in Anamosa, which is an old facility.

Skinner:

Communications with staff or with incarcerated individuals?

Henderson:

Radios.

Skinner:

Oh yeah, the radios. Yeah. One of the things we did, we did upgrades in our radios across the state.

Henderson:

Because that was an issue that was identified by the consultant, correct?

Skinner:

Uh not specifically at Anamosa. We did some upgrade, some upgrades. Our radios were working fine. But you know, you do have to upgrade your, upgrade your radios on a regular basis because of the software and things like that. So we did a, a radio upgrade regardless. So that wasn't the main issue. But yeah, communication's fine. It is an old prison. So, you know, probably our biggest issue is wifi - is getting the fiber enough fiber lines to get through, to get wifi in certain areas for classrooms, for, for cognitive behavioral type programs, for education, but doesn't cause the radio issue.

Murphy:

One of the things identified in the report was the, the perpetrators in the tragedy were using tools that were available through an apprenticeship program. And, and this is kind of another one of those how do you balance questions because these programs are designed to help prepare inmates for careers or to be ready for when they - so how do you balance having those available, but again, keeping your population safe because those tools were used unfortunately in a, in a tragic way. And have, have those programs changed in any way since the incident?

Skinner:

Sure. I'm gonna try to remember your two part question. <Laugh>. First what we did, you know, immediately is we did a tool control review. We also developed a job classification assessment, which looks specifically at certain variables that may put someone at a higher risk to use tools. We also developed a database or a job classification database. So anyone that's gonna carry a tool, whether it be a class A, B or C tool has to be run through that assessment. And some people are not able to carry tools. We did move some of our Iowa Prison Industry programs out of Anamosa. And so we put those into more of our medium, minimum security type facilities. So we've changed operations quite a bit since the tragic murders of Bob and Lorena.

Murphy:

And in the report, it, it, one of the things it said that those changes were in place, but there were still some maybe inconsistent policies from facility facility. Has that been addressed, or do you feel like there's one, you know, strategy that applies now across the board?

Skinner:

Sure. so what we did, we hired Brian Foss is our security operations director. And we really wanted to make sure we really focused on policy procedure and our audit process. So part of the recommendations too, that came from CGL was a compliance office. So we have hired compliance officers that are following up to make sure those, you know, tool controls are, are, people are following them. And other of our security operations. So we really doubled down on making sure that we are compliant. You know, we just did a few audits, just audits just this week at some of our prisons. So we are, we are scrutinizing that and we're making sure that, you know, when we do find something that might be a deficiency that we're following up and it gets done and gets taken care of.

Henderson:

So what kind of tools are we talking about and what is being made at quote unquote Prison Industries?

Skinner:

Oh, I mean, it depends on, so it depends on the industries. I mean, it could be balloons. It could be you know, packing balloons, it could be making signs, it could be making license plates. You know, we're, we're getting outta the woodworking business, so we're not, we're not doing that as much. So yeah, I mean, tools can be anywhere from a screwdriver to, you know, a potential saw, to a hammer, to whatever that may be. But all the tools have a certain classification. The more potential for danger with a tool, the higher classification and the less people that can get their hands on it.

Masters:

Another issue - overcrowding in prisons. What can the department of corrections do to address overcrowding and what do you see as ways to solve the issue in the state?

Skinner:

So as you probably all know, is that corrections we're kind of we're bookend, right? So we have the courts and then we have the board of parole. However, we do have some control of that in terms of. So reentry begins at day one. When someone comes into our prison, we already plan for reentry. A lot of people think reentry starts the day that they get a release. We start at day one. We work very hard. We identify the needs. When we say needs, those criminogenic factors that drive criminal behavior. We address those needs in prison with programming treatment core correctional practices. We train our officers in certain kind of interactions and skills that they can use, not just in a classroom, but like on the unit. We do very comprehensive reentry planning. We, we wanna do a warm handoff with the community based corrections. Just recently we're piloting a tech to connect program, which is actually the community based corrections is reaching into the prison with tablets so they can get more treatment and more comprehensive reentry before they leave. So if we do our job in corrections, in terms of getting prepared for reentry, knowing 95% are going to come back to their communities, that's the part we can play because it means we're preparing them, and they're good candidates for release.

Masters:

Are there needs for more capacity for prisoners new facilities? I mean that has a, we'll get a little bit more into recidivism here in a moment, but I mean, just in general speaking the population and the growth of the, the prison populations, how, how do you address that?

Skinner:

Yeah, so, no, we're not, we have no plans to expand or build any other prisons. And right now in the last, you know, probably month, our prison population is starting to decline. It's moving in the right direction. You know, again, you know, we have a great relationship with the board of parole. They're a separate entity but we wanna make sure that they, they see the things they need to see in order to make that informed decision. So we work closely with them in a sense, like what information do you wanna know? So we do our part so they have the information to make an informed decision. And again, I think it's really important to know that public safety is our number one priority. We wanna make sure that the people that we are letting out are prepared to reenter and they're good candidates to go out in front of the board of parole.

Murphy:

Does, does the corrections department ever get involved in debates among lawmakers? There's talk now of addressing non-violent offenders, you know. Should marijuana be criminalized, examples like that? Does, does the corrections department ever get involved in that from the perspective of maybe people are coming to us that don't need to be, that would be better served?

Skinner:

No, we don't get involved those conversations. Again, we are on that, that book end. We take what the courts send us, and then we release those who the board of parole says can be released. There are, there are people that flatten out. And when we say flatten out, that means that they leave prison with no time. Is that ideal? No, we want people to have time and supervision, so they don't fall through the cracks. Because just to put a finer kind of point on that is that reentry can be challenging. If you imagine yourself being incarcerated five, 10 years and get out, the world has changed. It changes very quickly. So we wanna make sure that they have time to get out and someone catches them, and they get the wraparound services to address any kind of mental health issue, or substance abuse issue, or transportation, or jobs. So that's just really, really a priority for us.

Henderson:

I wanna talk about mental health in the context of the people who are coming into your facility. But first, how many people enter without a high school degree, and can they get a G E D when they're in prison, number one?

Skinner:

It ranges from about 30 to 40% coming without a high school or HiSET high school degree. We, we provide HiSET. We try to make sure depending on how long they're with us to make sure they get out with their, you know, with their diploma or their HiSET. Cuz we know it builds social and human capital. You know, we have tutors, we have, you know, we have, we have great partnerships with the various community colleges. I will tell you from my seat where I'm sitting right now, education is very important, and we wanna make sure that they get at least their high school, if not post-secondary, if we can, because we know it reduces recidivism.

Henderson:

What about substance abuse issues?

Skinner:

Mm-hmm <affirmative> Yes. So, you know, probably about 60% of our population has a substance abuse issue. So when they come into intake, we, we evaluate that. We have options, too. We have different programming that they can get involved in and things like that. It becomes sometimes it becomes difficult with people that have substance abuse issues in prison because it's kind of like artificial in a sense because they are they're dry and they're not engaging in drugs because they're in prison. However, they, you know, they do get drugs in and they can make alcohol. But you know, but we wanna prepare them for those that are going out that do have substance abuse issues to make sure they have treatment when they get out, they immediately go into treatment.

Henderson:

We hear from county sheriffs who say my county jail has turned into a mental health facility. How many, what percentage of prisoners have a diagnosed mental illness? And how are you handling that in the system?

Skinner:

Anywhere from 65 to 70% have a mental health issue. I can tell you in the women's facility, 95% are on some psychotropic medication. We have an amazing team in corrections. We have Dr. Greenfield, who's our medical director and a practicing psychiatrist has a team. We assess people as soon as they come in the doors. If they have, you know, we, if we do like a screen and if we flag them for a screen, then we do a full blown diagnostic on them. And then we get them the treatment they need. And we try to stabilize them. And then once they get out, we make sure they have medication, they have a prescription, you know, so they don't fall through the cracks while they're waiting to see a mental health provider.

Henderson:

Your undergrad degree, I think, is in psychology.

Skinner:

Correct.

Henderson:

So how has that changed? I mean, has it always been a huge majority had a diagnosed mental illness among the population?

Skinner:

As long as I've been in corrections. And I haven't been in corrections as a lot of people have been, but <laugh>.

Henderson:

Almost 20 years.

Skinner:

Almost 20 years. I know I look like I'm 20. But anyway as long as I've been in corrections, mental, you know, mental health people, mental illnesses have been in the system. And, you know, even when I started in early 2000s, it was an issue.

Murphy:

One of the possibilities that was mentioned in the wake of the Anamosa incident is body cameras on corrections officers. Is that being considered or, or being installed? What's the latest there?

Skinner:

It's being implemented. Yeah, it's, it's a great I think it's a great tool. Not only for our staff to protect our staff, but to protect those that are incarcerated as well. It also can be a training tool for us. Staff seem to like it. At first I think, you know, maybe some people were like, not sure about this. But people also realize it protects them as well. And so, yeah, we, we have them in almost all of our institutions now and we keep. It takes money to obviously to finance those cameras, but our hope is to have one on every single person.

Murphy:

By...

Skinner:

The next year or so.

Masters:

I actually wanna circle back to what Kay was just talking about with the percentages of mental health, substance abuse issues. I think from your perspective, having a different perspective than maybe a lot of people that are in a position like yours how do you get in front of this so that those people aren't having to come through the department of corrections? What needs to be done on the front end, in this society, in the state of Iowa to prevent people from having to go to prison to get those kinds of services?

Skinner:

You're, you're touching on my social work side now. <Laugh> so yeah. You know, I think a big thing, you know, from my perspective, my perspective being as a research background, is diversion. Is that instead of taking people to jail we take 'em to hospitals. We find them beds. Of course that becomes a bed capacity issue. Correct? but I think we are getting so much more thoughtful and strategic about that. And I, I see people having that conversation now and I, I see things happening even now around let's expand beds. Where can we put these individuals instead of putting them in jail or arrested and putting 'em in jail or putting 'em in the corrections, let's put them in a bed or an, you know, inpatient bed, excuse me, or an outpatient facility. But I think we're starting to move the needle. And I'm very hopeful that those conversations will continue, but it's very important.

Masters:

And when you say we, is that, I mean the department of corrections taking a lead on that?

Skinner:

That's all of us. I think, so one thing, Clay, just to share with you, is that I see corrections as one point in the criminal justice system, right? You have policy policy, you know, policies made, you have law enforcement, courts, corrections, board of parole. You have community based corrections. We all have to do our part in order to really divert these individuals and to keep 'em in the community. As long as they're not posing a public safety risk, they should be in their communities. And again, I think we still need to continue to build capacity. Like I said, I think we're having the right conversations. We just need to continue to build that capacity.

Henderson:

One of the conversations among legislators recently has been about a program specifically at Newton where people are building a house and then it's moved off the site there and somewhere else.

Skinner:

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Henderson:

How is that going? How many have been made?

Skinner:

Okay. So to date, we've had 30 houses that we've sent out. This year, we're on track for 29. This program is incredible. It's a great partnership. We call it the win, win, meaning that those - our incarcerated individuals are getting skills in a very high demand job. So when they get out, they get very good jobs, livable wages. And we're making affordable homes for Iowans. So it's been great. We just, like, we wanna get more people through the program. If you drive past Newton, you can see there's just houses peppered all over. And they're getting experience in electrical, plumbing, you know, HVAC, you know, woodworking. It's just incredible. And I would encourage anyone to take a tour of Homes for Iowa. It's amazing.

Henderson:

So do you have apprenticeships set up with some of the trades?

Skinner:

Yes. We have about 29 or maybe 30 apprenticeship programs. We've had over 300 graduates. What we know is that apprenticeship programs reduce recidivism. So, you know, we wanna double down on, on our apprenticeship programs, and we know that a lot of these individuals that are doing these apprenticeship programs are getting out and getting jobs and not coming back to us. And that's a win. So very excited about that.

Murphy:

And that's a great segue to something else we wanted to ask you about. And it's also an area of your expertise. You mentioned that short time that you took off from corrections you were involved with a group that was looking at reentry and recidivism rates. What are the things you're trying to implement in corrections, or maybe just overarching, you know, themes, and how is the state doing at keeping that rate of people coming back to you as low as possible?

Skinner:

Right. First of all, I'm very glad you asked that question, Erin. So I just wanna explain what recidivism is, just so everyone knows what it is. So it's when someone leaves prison, if they return in three years. Whether it be cuz they got revoked from their conditions of supervision, or they committed a new crime. So first of all, I'll share with you some really good news.

Murphy:

And I should stop you real quick just to say you have about a minute left. So just so you know that.

Skinner:

Okay. <laugh> so we're gonna do, I'm gonna, you the reader's digest version.

Murphy:

There you go.

Skinner:

So recidivism went down last year for the first time in six years. For the first time publicly I'm sharing with you all that recidivism has gone down another 1.7% this year. And that is because our staff has worked so hard to do evidence based practices, have fidelity to the work they do, their commitment, their passion for people to have second chances knowing they're going back in their communities. They've done a lot of work. We've had a lot of plate spinning. We've executed a lot, and that's why we're seeing that success.

Henderson:

So what is the percentage overall?

Skinner:

37%. So over the course of two years, it's gone down almost 3%.

Henderson:

So how high had it gotten?

Skinner:

Oh, it's been up near 40, over 40. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>.

Henderson:

How do we compare to states around us?

Skinner:

That's challenging, because every state measures measures it differently. Right now there's a huge national initiative right now that's trying to get all states to measure recidivism the same way so we're comparable. But if you compare states that actually measure it to the same way we do, we do pretty well. We're probably in the top 10.

Henderson:

Well, I have to measure our time here, and we are out of it. So thank you today for joining us for this conversation.

Skinner:

Thank you for this opportunity, and thank you both too. Appreciate it.

Henderson:

And you can watch every episode of Iowa Press at iowapbs.org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for watching.

Voiceover:

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation. The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's highway, bridge, and municipal utility infrastructure. Fuel Iowa is a voice and a resource for Iowa's fuel industry. Our members offer a diverse range of products, including fuel, grocery and convenience items. They help keep Iowa's on the move in rural and urban communities. Together, we fuel Iowa. Small businesses are the backbone of Iowa's communities and they are backed by Iowa banks. With advice, loans and financial services, banks across Iowa are committed to showing small businesses the way to a stronger tomorrow. Learn more at iowabankers.com.