State prison officials are evaluating the cost of installing air conditioning in the housing units at the state prison in Mount Pleasant.
During this month’s Board of Corrections meeting, Iowa Department of Corrections financial manager Steve Dick said the agency’s officials have discussed the project with Governor Reynolds’ staff. “We have put forth a study at Mount Pleasant for the air conditioning and the feedback we got when we met with the governor’s office was pretty positive with that,” Dick said, “so we’re hopeful that will be possibly put forward.”
In January, Governor Reynolds will submit a state budget plan to the legislature and prison officials are suggesting the project be part of next year’s infrastructure spending that’s financed with gambling taxes. Dick said prison officials are updating the estimated cost of installing air conditioning in the Mount Pleasant prison, plus how much utility costs will rise once the AC is running. “Not just the upfront of what it would cost to do the project, but also want are we looking at as far as ongoing costs,” Dick told the board.
The Iowa Department of Corrections website shows there are about a thousand inmates inside the Mount Pleasant facility today. A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found a 20% jump in violent incidents inside un-air conditioned prisons during heat waves. Last spring a federal judge ruled it’s unconstitutional for the State of Texas to house inmates in prisons that lack air conditioning and the inmates who sued the state can take their case to trial in March. The Texas legislature is considering a plan to install air conditioning in all of that state’s prisons by 2032.