Republicans in the Iowa House are preparing to investigate the long-delayed opening of the new state prison in Fort Madison. House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, a Republican from Hiawatha, has assigned the investigation to the House Oversight Committee.
Initial plans called for moving the prisoners in last March, but there have been a series of problems with the design of heating and ventilation systems for the new maximum security facility. It was built near the Iowa Penitentiary, a prison originally established 176 years ago when Iowa was a territory, but not yet a state. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, is chairman of the House Oversight Committee. That’s the panel Paulsen has asked to investigate.
It’s unclear whether Senate Democrats on the Senate Oversight Committee will join in the investigation. Senator Rob Hogg, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, is chairman of that committee.
Some Democrats have suggested Republican Governor Terry Branstad created some of the problems in 2011 by tossing out the “project labor agreements” Democratic Governor Chet Culver’s administration had negotiated with the union contractors working on the project. Some Republicans, meanwhile, point to flawed designs from a Dubuque architectural firm that went out of business in 2012. Kaufmann says he wants to find out if that firm was “in over its head” and whether there’s any way to recover any of the money that’s been spent fixing the problems.
