Should Polk County help pay for an offender release program the state took over? It says no.

Polk County has stopped paying for an intensive pretrial release program aimed at keeping offenders awaiting trial employed and out of trouble, a program the state of Iowa's corrections agency recently took over.

County officials last week ended its decades-long contract with the Fifth Judicial District of the Iowa Department of Corrections, contending the county shouldn't have to pay if it no longer has control of the program. Polk County had paid $240,000 annually to help fund the program, which serves about 150 people at any given time facing criminal trials in the county.

The pretrial release program, offered statewide, provides supervision to people who are charged with crimes but are allowed to stay out of county jails while awaiting trial. The program aims to help them avoid a new arrest and ensure they'll appear for their court appearances. It offers defendants charged with lower-level crimes a chance to continue working and have access to counseling, substance abuse services and other resources. Polk County's contributions funded additional staff to provide close supervision to "higher-risk" defendants who would otherwise be in jail.

The months-long dispute between the county and DOC officials — consisting of angry letters and threats to disrupt the program — leaves the intensive pretrial program in limbo. The state has warned that the county's exit from the contract could lead to overcrowding at the jail and leave some offenders without proper monitoring.

The feud is part of a broader shift that consolidated a corrections program formerly run by local districts across the state under DOC control after the Iowa Legislature passed a sweeping bill in 2023 that reorganized the state's government. The bill underscores a fundamental conflict between state and local control.

Michelle Dix, DOC director for the Fifth District, which oversees Polk County, called the county's ending of the contract a "retaliatory" response to the bill, adding that the state's oversight shouldn't impact the services being provided nor those providing the services. But Dix says the state can't sustain the current program without the county's funding and will have to significantly reduce its services as a result.

"The termination of this contract severs the long-standing partnership between the DOC and Polk County in the delivery of a highly successful local community based corrections program," Dix wrote in a January letter to Polk County Administrator John Norris, later adding: "An exchange of letters and inflammatory rhetoric serves as only a distraction to all parties" in protecting public safety and serving Iowans.

Polk County Supervisor Tom Hockensmith chalks up the state's actions to a "political power grab" and told the Des Moines Register: "It seems to be the mantra of this administration to control everything across the state." Hockensmith and other county leaders say they don't want to see the program fall apart, but without local leadership it doesn't make sense to burden county taxpayers to help fund the program.

Norris compared the situation to the Boston Tea Party, saying that "taxation without representation was unjust."

"Our local CBC is yours now," Norris wrote in a letter to Dix. "You run it, control it, own it, and now you need to pay for it."

County officials and local leaders say while it's still too soon to determine what the exact impacts will be, they hope the program remains intact.

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While all Iowa counties have pretrial release programs, only Polk and Black Hawk counties have intensive pretrial release

The Iowa Department of Corrections Pretrial Release Program, mandated under the state of Iowa, has operated under local control for more than 40 years.

Pretrial release is one piece of the larger Iowa Community-Based Corrections program — which also supervises convicted Iowans on probation or parole — with an overarching goal of serving as an alternative to incarceration, according to the Legislative Services Agency.

The community corrections program was divided into eight judicial districts across the state — each with its own board made up of local elected officials, as well as a director. Polk County's program is housed in the Fifth Judicial District, along with 15 other counties including Dallas, Jasper and Warren counties.

Historically, directors in each district reported to their local boards, and these boards were responsible for the day-to-day operation of pretrial release and the budget necessary to effectively run it, Jerry Evans, coordinator of the Polk County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, told the Register in an email.

Under the new law, directors of local boards now report to Beth Skinner, director of the state Department of Corrections. The move makes the Fifth Judicial District existent in geographic terms, but renders its once-local governing board practically obsolete, according to deputy county administrator Sarah Boese.

In a January letter, Dix contended that "community based corrections are still community based under the oversight of the DOC with the resources and staff based directly in the communities they serve." But Boese and Norris question whether the boards will actually have any input moving forward.

Hockensmith, who served as chair of the Fifth District board for more than two decades, says the local corrections program had been a way to give those who are not a danger to society access to programs that help them "get back on their feet." It has always had a "hands-on," community-based approach, offering services for substance abuse, mental health, job preparedness and housing, Hockensmith said.

Parole, probation and pretrial circumstances don't have a "one-size-fits-all," which is why the county originally decided to run it locally, he said.

The pretrial release program identifies defendants booked into the county jail who would be appropriate candidates for release if supervision conditions are ordered by the court, and provides different services to them depending on their "risk level," Evans wrote. Supervision for the highest-risk defendants, for example, includes face-to-face contacts, home visits, court reminders and electronic monitoring when warranted or ordered.

“The long-range goal of the pretrial release program is to keep in place the stability factors defendants might have, such as employment, that will assist them while they await disposition of their pending case,” he wrote.

The Fifth Judicial District provides not only standard pretrial release services to Polk County, but also an intensive pretrial release program, which Iowa Code doesn't require and is considered a supplemental service, according to DOC Research Director Sarah Fineran. The only other county with a similar program is Black Hawk County.

In January, the Fifth District was supervising 933 pretrial defendants in Polk County, with 140 of them in the intensive pretrial release program, according to the DOC.

Corrections program shifts from local to state control after Legislature passes sweeping bill

The state's eight judicial districts were stripped of their control of the Community-Based Corrections program with the passage of a sweeping bill in the state Legislature in 2023.

The bill reduced and reorganized state government, shrunk the executive branch from 37 agencies to 16 executive state agencies, and gave Gov. Kim Reynolds more power over appointments, firings and salaries of state employees.

More: Does Kim Reynolds' plan to reshape Iowa government give her too much power? We break it down

In February 2023, prior to the bill's passage, which gave the DOC control of the corrections program, Skinner held a virtual meeting with board members from all eight judicial districts, who voiced a range of concerns about the loss of local control resulting from the bill.

Linda Murken, a Story County Supervisor and a board member in the Second Judicial District, attended a House subcommittee early last year to speak against the change. She said the state’s community-based corrections districts have passed their accreditation from the Department of Corrections and have passed their annual audits from the Iowa State Auditor’s Office.

“I don’t understand where the savings is here,” Murken told legislators. “I don’t understand where the efficiencies are, quite frankly, and I don’t understand where we are not achieving good outcomes.”

What's the beef between Polk County and the Iowa Department of Corrections?

Polk County paid about 38% of the annual intensive pretrial release program costs to the Fifth Judicial District, under the contract established in 1996. It costs around $640,000 per year, which includes four probation/parole officers, pretrial interview work, a GPS monitoring system and a secretary, according to the state.

After the bill's passage, in an Aug. 24 letter, Hockensmith told Dix the county would stop paying its share for the program, arguing that a program under the control of the state should be paid for by the state.

Additionally, Hockensmith said the county would begin charging the DOC $65,654.14 in rent annually for the 23 state employees working out of the Polk County Criminal Courts building and the Polk County Jail. He said all other state employees housed in county offices pay rent.

Dix countered that the county's reduced funding would mean the DOC would have to scale back its operations in the Fifth Judicial District by capping the number of clients in the intensive pretrial release program at 50 people. She wrote the cap was proportional to the amount the county was willing to pay.

"As a public safety professional, it is difficult for me to understand why you and the county find it prudent to divest from this effective program while also being fully aware the Fifth District has carried the bulk of the cost and is willing to continue to do so if the county would agree to keep their investment in the program status quo," Dix wrote to Hockensmith in a letter dated Oct. 19.

She added that the county's "divestment" would have negative impacts: The current intensive pretrial release program helps Polk County control its jail population and save staffing resources that would otherwise be dedicated to those who will now be placed in jail, she wrote. Additionally, judges who would otherwise place defendants in the intensive pretrial release program may have to put them on standard pretrial supervision, which means less monitoring, she said.

The county, in turn, called the 50-person cap arbitrary and unconstitutional, saying it would create "additional disparity in the criminal justice system and those who would be eligible for release under supervision," Hockensmith wrote in a letter to Dix on Dec. 28.

"You know, how can person number 51 not get the same options for getting out of jail as the first 50 people? Like how do you do that?" Boese said in an interview with the Register.

At one point, officials in Polk County discussed standing up the county's own pretrial program, but "it became pretty clear (from state officials) that they weren't interested in helping us succeed at that at all," Boese said. State officials disagreed, saying the DOC was open to helping the county form its own program over time, though it would still require DOC staff to, for example, conduct pretrial interviews and risk assessment.

In a Jan. 18 letter, Norris wrote it was suspicious that the state still needed the funding from the county considering the DOC budget grew by $12 million due to the restructuring and another $6 million from the unspent district funds across the state.

Most recently, the county has said it's allowing the state employees to stay in the offices for free, though it still will withdraw its money for the program. Boese told the Register that it had continued to extend its payments to the state in the hope of getting the matter resolved while county officials figured out the next move, but the contract ended on Feb. 1.

"We hope that they continue to, you know, provide services that they are responsible for," she said. "And we'll continue to look for ways at the local level to work with our local partners on how to get people additional services."

For its part, the DOC will "transition clients formerly part of the IPR program to standard pretrial services in accordance with Iowa law and ensure clients on pretrial are safely supervised, as this is in the best interest of Iowans and ensures community safety," Fineran wrote in an email to the Register.

José Mendiola is a breaking news reporter for the Register. Reach him at jmendiola@dmreg.com.

Virginia Barreda is the Des Moines city government reporter for the Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@dmreg.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2. 

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Polk County, state of Iowa end pretrial release pact. Can it be saved?