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STATE OF IOWA
KIM REYNOLDS
GOVERNOR
May 6, 2025
The Honorable Paul Pate
Secretary of State of Iowa
State Capitol
Des Moines, Iowa 50319
Dear Mr. Secretary,
I hereby transmit:
House File 398, an Act relating to the duties of the director of the department of
corrections, the board of corrections, superintendents, and district directors.
The above House File is hereby approved on this date.
Sincerely
Kii
Governor of Iowa
cc: Secretary of the Senate
Clerk of the House
STATE CAPITOL DES MOINES, IOWA 50319 515.281.5211 FAX 515.725.3527 WWW.GOVERNOR.IOWA.GOV
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GENERAl. ASS EM BEY
House File 398
AN ACT
RELATING TO THE DUTIES OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF
CORRECTIONS, THE BOARD OF CORRECTIONS, SUPERINTENDENTS, AND
DISTRICT DIRECTORS.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
Section 1, Section 904.108, subsection 1, paragraphs h, k,
and 1, Code 2025, are amended to read as follows:
h. Prepare a budget for the department, subject to the
approval advice and recommendations of the board, and other
reports as required by law.
k. Adopt rules_j_ subject to the approval 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.
1. Adopt rules, policies, and procedures, subject to the
approval advice and recommendations of the board, pertaining to
community-based correctional programs, and the supervision of
parole and work release.
Sec. 2, Section 904.108, subsection 2, Code 2025, is amended
to read as follows:
2. The director, with the oxprcoo approval 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
House File 398, p. 2
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.
Sec. 3. Section 904,110, Code 2025, is amended to read as
follows:
904.110 Official seal.
The department shall have an official seal with the words
^'lowa Department of Corrections" and other an engraved design
as the board prescribes. Every commission, order, or other
paper of an official nature executed by the department may be
attested with the seal.
Sec. 4, Section 904.114, Code 2025, is amended to read as
follows:
904.114 Travel expenses.
The director, staff members, assistants, and employees, in
addition to salary, shall receive their necessary traveling
expenses by the nearest practicable route, when engaged in
the performance of official business. Permission shall not
be granted to any person to travel to another state except by
approval of the board director or the director's designee.
Sec. 5. Section 904.207, Code 2025, is amended to read as
follows:
904.207 Violator facility.
The director may establish a violator facility as a
freestanding facility, or designate a portion of an existing
correctional facility for the purpose. A violator facility
is for the temporary confinement of offenders who have
violated conditions of release under work release or parole
as defined in section 906.1, or probation granted as a result
of suspension of a sentence to the custody of the director
of the department of corrections. If a violator facility is
established, the director shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter
17A, subject to the approval advice and recommendations of the
House File 398, p. 3
board, to implement this section.
Sec. 6. Section 904.301, Code 2025, is amended to read as
follows:
904.301 Appointment of superintendents.
1. The director shall appoint, subject to the approval
advice and recommendations of the board, the superintendents of
the institutions provided for in section 904.102.
2. The superintendent has the immediate custody and
control, subject to the orders and policies of the director,
of all property used in connection with the institution except
as otherwise provided by statute. The tenure of office of
a superintendent shall be at the pleasure of the appointing
authority but a superintendent may be removed for inability or
refusal to properly perform the duties of the office. Romoval
ohall occur only after an opportunity is given the person to
be heard before fa-he board and the director and upon'preferred
written charges.—The removal when made is final.
Sec. 7. Section 904,301A, Code 2025, is amended to read as
follows:
904.301A Appointment of directors.
1■ The director shall appoint, subject to the approval
advice and recommendations of the board, a district director
for each district department established in section 904.104A.
2. The district director has the immediate custody and
control, subject to the orders and policies of the director, of
all property used in connection with the district department
except as otherwise provided by statute. The tenure of
office of a district director shall be at the pleasure of the
appointing authority but a district director may be removed
for inability or refusal to properly perform the duties of the
office.
Sec. 8. Section 904.317, subsection 1, Code 2025, is amended
to read as follows:
1. The director, subject to the approval advice and
recommendations of the board, may secure options to purchase
real estate and acquire and sell real estate for the proper
uses of the institutions. Real estate shall be acquired and
sold upon terms and conditions the director recommends subject
to the approval advice and recommendations of the board. Upon
House File 398, p. 4
sale of the real estate, the proceeds shall be deposited in a
corrections capital reinvestment fund, which is established in
the state treasury under the purview of the department. There
is appropriated from the fund to the department the proceeds,
which may be used to purchase other real estate or for capital
improvements upon property under the director's supervision.
Notwithstanding section 8.33, moneys in the fund that remain
unencumbered or unobligated at the close of a fiscal year shall
not revert but shall remain available for expenditure for the
purposes designated. Notwithstanding section 12C.7, subsection
2, interest or earnings on moneys in the fund shall be credited
to the fund.
Sec. 9. Section 904.508, subsection 1, Code 2025, is amended
to read as follows:
1. The superintendent of each institution shall receive and
care for any property an inmate may possess on the inmate's
person upon entering the institution, and on the discharge of
the inmate, return the property to the inmate or the inmate's
legal representatives, unless the property has been previously
disposed of according to the inmate's written designation et-
policies prGscribcd by the board. The superintendent may place
an inmate's money at interest, keeping an account of the money
and returning the remaining money upon discharge.
PAT GRASSI^ AMY SINgX'AIR
Speaker of the House President of the Senate
I hereby certify that this bill originated in the House and
is known as House File 398, Ninety-first General Assembly.
MEGHAN NELSON
Cnief\ Clerk khe House
Approved , 2025
KIM REFOLDS
Governor