A third annual summit on racial disparities in Iowa’s prisons, to be held next month in Ankeny, is being expanded to two days and moved to a larger facility. Iowa NAACP President, Betty Andrews spoke at a statehouse news conference to promote the summit.

For more than a decade, Iowa has ranked number-one in the nation for the number of African-Americans per capita in the criminal justice system.

African-Americans represent just over 3% of Iowa’s population, but they make up 26% of the inmates in Iowa’s prisons.

Governor Terry Branstad plans to attend next month’s summit and at the news conference, he claimed Iowa has made “some strides” in reducing racial disparities in prisons.