Iowa profile
Iowa has an incarceration rate of 582 per 100,000 people (including prisons, jails, immigration detention, and juvenile justice facilities), meaning that it locks up a higher percentage of its people than almost any democracy on earth. Read on to learn more about who is incarcerated in Iowa and why.
17,000 people from Iowa are behind bars
Additionally, the number of people impacted by county and city jails in Iowa is much larger than the graph above would suggest, because people cycle through local jails relatively quickly. Each year, at least 40,000 different people are booked into local jails in Iowa.
Rates of imprisonment have grown dramatically in the last 40 years
- total numbers rather than rates.
- Women’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
- Men’s prisons: Incarceration Rates | Total Population
Today, Iowa’s incarceration rates stand out internationally
People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails
Iowa's criminal justice system is more than just its prisons and jails
The high cost of being incarcerated in Iowa
Prisons and jails in Iowa are increasingly shifting the cost of incarceration to people behind bars and their families, hiding the true economic costs of mass incarceration:
- Jails in Iowa charge up to $3.15 for a 15-minute phone call, reaping profits for companies, while prisons charge $1.65 for a 15-minute call.
- Iowa suspended its $3 medical copays in prisons at the beginning of the pandemic for flu related medical visits — but should eliminate them entirely.
- Iowa prisons charge families up to a 32% fee to transfer money to an incarcerated loved one.
- People in Iowa prisons with more than $6 in their commissary account do not qualify for the $3.50 credit to purchase basic hygiene items and supplies for legal mail.
- People in Iowa prisons earn as little as 27¢ an hour for their work.
- Iowa charges up to 25¢ for an e-message to or from prison.
Our other articles about Iowa
- Iowa's choice to criminalize "failure to appear" may be hurting public safety
- The cost of incarcerating older people is incredibly high, and their risk of reincarceration is incredibly low, yet 12% of people in Iowa prisons are over the age of 55. Why is the state keeping so many older people locked up?
- Iowa makes it difficult or even risky for incarcerated journalists to tell their stories.
- Iowa is one of 20 states that locks up some people convicted of sex offenses in shadowy "civil commitment" facilities, long after their sentences are over — and often indefinitely
- Some Iowa prisons are replacing incarcerated people's personal mail with scans, stifling family contact
- Iowa prisons release about 7,114 people every year
- We graded the parole release systems of all 50 states - Iowa gets an F
- Who's helping the 26,863 women released from Iowa correctional facilities each year?
Other resources
- Research on Iowa in our Research Library
Data on COVID-19 in Iowa jails and prisons
We gave Iowa a failing grade in September 2021 for its response to the coronavirus in prisons, noting that:
- Iowa is one of 15 prison systems that had not yet vaccinated more than 60% of the incarcerated population.
- Iowa failed to utilize one of the most obvious, and easiest, tools for reducing the prison population — stopping prison admissions for technical violations of probation and parole (which are not crimes).
For more detail, see our report States of Emergency. Or check out these other resources:
- How many COVID-19 cases in Iowa communities can be linked to outbreaks in correctional facilities? (data from our report Mass Incarceration, COVID-19, and Community Spread)
