Today, I visited Anamosa State Penitentiary with several colleagues from the Iowa Senate and Iowa House. We got a tour of the housing blocks, the common areas, the Iowa Prison Industries workshops and the infirmary.

We had the opportunity to talk directly to prison staff in all the areas we visited and met with the union president. The things we heard lead us to these conclusions:

1. The Department of Corrections budget is completely underfunded and House and Senate Republicans& #39; piddling offerings are completely inadequate.

2. Department of Corrections employees perform a valuable service to our state, but we set them up for failure when we don& #39;t provide them the tools to safely do their jobs.

3. The Department of Corrections is being deprived of technology that could help make the prison safer for employees & incarcerated individuals.
Democrats plan to keep the pressure on Republicans in the Legislature to provide more funding to the Dept. of Corrections.