904.108. Director — duties, powers.
1. The director shall:
a. Supervise the operations of the institutions under the department’s jurisdiction and may delegate the powers and authorities given the director by statute to officers or employees of the department.
b. Supervise state agents whose duties relate primarily to the department.
c. Establish and maintain a program to oversee women’s institutional and community corrections programs and to provide community support to ensure continuity and consistency of programs. The person responsible for implementing this section shall report to the director.
d. Establish and maintain acceptable standards of treatment, training, education, and rehabilitation in the various state penal and corrective institutions which shall include habilitative services and treatment for offenders with an intellectual disability. For the purposes of this paragraph, “habilitative services and treatment” means medical, mental health, social, educational, counseling, and other services which will assist a person with an intellectual disability to become self-reliant. However, the director may also provide rehabilitative treatment and services to other persons who require the services. The director shall identify all individuals entering the correctional system who are persons with an intellectual disability, as defined in section 4.1. Identification shall be made by a qualified professional in the area of intellectual disability. In assigning an offender with an intellectual disability, or an offender with an inadequately developed intelligence or with impaired mental abilities, to a correctional facility, the director shall consider both the program needs and the security needs of the offender. The director shall consult with the department of health and human services in providing habilitative services and treatment to offenders with mental illness or an intellectual disability. The director may enter into agreements with the department of health and human services to utilize mental health institutions and share staff and resources for purposes of providing habilitative services and treatment, as well as providing other special needs programming. Any agreement to utilize mental health institutions and to share staff and resources shall provide that the costs of the habilitative services and treatment shall be paid from state funds. Not later than twenty days prior to entering into any agreement to utilize mental health institution staff and resources, other than the use of a building or facility, for purposes of providing habilitative services and treatment, as well as other special needs programming, the directors of the departments of corrections and health and human services shall each notify the chairpersons and ranking members of the joint appropriations subcommittees that last handled the appropriation for their respective departments of the pending agreement. Use of a building or facility shall require approval of the general assembly if the general assembly is in session or, if the general assembly is not in session, the legislative council may grant temporary authority, which shall be subject to final approval of the general assembly during the next succeeding legislative session.
e. Employ, assign, and reassign personnel as necessary for the performance of duties and responsibilities assigned to the department. Employees shall be selected on the basis of fitness for work to be performed with due regard to training and experience and are subject to chapter 8A, subchapter IV.
f. Establish standards of mental fitness which shall govern the initial recruitment, selection, and appointment of correctional officers. To promote these standards, the director shall by rule require a battery of psychological tests to determine cognitive skills, personality characteristics and suitability of all applicants for a correctional career.
g. Examine all state institutions which are penal, reformatory, or corrective to determine their efficiency for adequate care, custody, and training of their inmates and report the findings to the board.
h. Prepare a budget for the department, subject to the advice and recommendations of the board, and other reports as required by law.
i. Develop long-range correctional planning and an ongoing five-year corrections master plan. The director shall annually report to the general assembly to inform its members as to the status and content of the planning and master plan.
j. Supervise rehabilitation camps within the state as may be established by the director. Persons committed to institutions under the department may be transferred to the facilities of the camp system and upon transfer shall be subject to the same laws as pertain to the transferring institution.
k. Adopt rules, subject to the advice and recommendations of the board, pertaining to the internal management of institutions and agencies under the director’s charge and necessary to carry out the duties and powers outlined in this section.
l. Adopt rules, policies, and procedures, subject to the advice and recommendations of the board, pertaining to community-based correctional programs, and the supervision of parole and work release.
m. Provide routine administrative and support services to the board of parole.
n. Cooperate with Iowa state university of science and technology to provide, for purposes of agricultural research, development, and testing, the use of resources, including property, facilities, labor, and services, connected with institutions listed in section 904.102. However, use of the resources by the university is subject to approval by the director. Before granting approval, the director shall require that the university compensate the department for the use of the resources, on terms specified by the director.
o. Establish and maintain a correctional training program.
2. The director, with the advice and recommendations of the board, may establish for any inmate sentenced pursuant to section 902.3 a furlough program under which inmates sentenced to and confined in any institution under the jurisdiction of the department may be temporarily released. A furlough for a period not to exceed fourteen days may be granted when an immediate member of an inmate’s family is seriously ill or has died, when an inmate is to be interviewed by a prospective employer, or when an inmate is authorized to participate in a training program not available within the institution. Furloughs for a period not to exceed fourteen days may also be granted in order to allow inmates to participate in programs or activities that serve rehabilitative objectives.
3. The director may establish a sales bonus system for the sales representatives for prison industry products. If a sales bonus system is established, the system shall not affect the status of the sales representatives under chapter 8A, subchapter IV.
4. The director may expend moneys from the support allocation of the department as reimbursement for replacement or repair of personal items of the department’s employees damaged or destroyed by clients of the department during the employee’s tour of duty. However, the reimbursement shall not exceed three hundred dollars for each item. The director shall establish rules in accordance with chapter 17A to carry out the purpose of this subsection.
5. The director may obtain assistance for the department for construction, facility planning, and project accomplishment with the department of administrative services and by contracting under chapter 28E for data processing with the department of health and human services or the department of administrative services.
6. The director may charge an inmate a correctional fee for custodial expenses incurred or which may be incurred while the inmate is in the custody of the department. The custodial expenses may include, but are not limited to, board and room, medical and dental fees including any necessary transportation fee not to exceed five dollars per visit, education costs, clothing costs, and the costs of supervision, services, and treatment to the inmate. The correctional fee shall not exceed the actual cost of keeping the inmate in custody. The correctional fees collected pursuant to this subsection shall be credited as a reimbursement to the appropriate correctional institution. This subsection does not limit the right of the director to obtain any other remedy authorized by law.
83 Acts, ch 96, §9, 159 CS83, §217A.8 84 Acts, ch 1150, §1; 84 Acts, ch 1245, §4; 85 Acts, ch 21, §15, 54 CS85, §246.108 86 Acts, ch 1245, §315, 1503, 1504; 87 Acts, ch 139, §1 C93, §904.108 96 Acts, ch 1111, §3; 96 Acts, ch 1129, §111; 96 Acts, ch 1219, §76; 97 Acts, ch 190, §3; 98 Acts, ch 1090, §76, 84; 98 Acts, ch 1131, §4; 99 Acts, ch 114, §46; 2002 Acts, ch 1175, §47; 2003 Acts, ch 88, §1; 2003 Acts, ch 145, §278, 279, 286; 2008 Acts, ch 1180, §22; 2012 Acts, ch 1019, §141; 2023 Acts, ch 19, §1328, 1329, 2779; 2025 Acts, ch 66, §1, 2 Subsection 1, paragraphs h, k, and l amended Subsection 2 amended
