800 sex offenders sent to Newton state prison

About 800 sex offenders, ranging from rapists to child molesters, have been sent to the Newton Correctional Facility, which now provides Iowa's sex offender treatment program.

Sex offender treatment had previously been based at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility in southeast Iowa. But Iowa Department of Corrections officials decided the Newton prison offers a more versatile and secure setting. The Newton prison has cells, while the Mount Pleasant prison has a dormitory-style environment.

"We have that opportunity where if somebody is removed from treatment for a behavioral report or some sort of incident, we keep can them here and work them through a process in order to get them back into treatment," said Newton's Associate Warden Sean Crawford, who oversees sex offender treatment. "At Mount Pleasant, we would have to transfer them to a higher-security facility."

The move to the Newton state prison is nearly completed, although about 100 sex offenders remain at Mount Pleasant, where three groups will finish treatment by the end of October, Crawford said. Sex offender treatment programs were launched at Newton in April and will last four to eight months, depending upon assessments that measure an inmate's risk to re-offend.

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Corrections and parole officials typically insist that sex offenders complete specialized treatment programs before they are freed from prison on parole or work release. Such programs require inmates to acknowledge responsibility for their crimes.

Overall, the Newton prison now houses 1,264 inmates, and Crawford said he anticipates the number of sex offenders will probably be capped there at about 800.

Prior to the shift of sex offenders to Newton, the Iowa Board of Corrections was consulted and key legislators and legislative staffs were made aware of the plans, said Assistant Iowa Corrections Director Fred Scaletta.

Newton Warden Kris Weitzell told The Des Moines Register she doesn't believe the shift of the sex offender treatment program to Newton should generate any worries about public safety for local residents. The main Newton prison, which is classified as medium-security, is surrounded by a double fence with razor wire and electronic sensors and is monitored by surveillance cameras.

"We continue our main mission, which is to protect the public, the staff and the offenders," Weitzell said. "We continue to follow all of our security protocols."

Danny Homan, president of Council 61 of  the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said he was not aware of any problems caused by the shift of sex offenders from Mount Pleasant to Newton.

"In my mind, an inmate is an inmate is an inmate," Homan said.

The transfer of sex offenders to Newton will not result in any staff reductions at either Newton or Mount Pleasant, Scaletta said. However, the Mount Pleasant prison is in the process of reducing its security status from medium-security to minimum-security, which will allow more freedom of movement for inmates.

The Mount Pleasant institution now holds about 880 inmates.