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| Study: Prisons don't help cities grow |
| By Demoines Register |
| Published: 09/17/2003 |
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Cities in Iowa and other states that lured state prisons in the 1990s haven't reaped the economic benefits they banked on, a new Iowa State University study shows. Most measures of the local economy, from wages and business growth to property values, dipped far below those of similar towns without prisons. Populations in the towns jumped by nearly a third in the 1990s, but the numbers included inmates as residents. Without them, the towns lost an average one-third of their populations between 1990 and 2000, researchers found. ISU sociologists couldn't pin their findings on one reason. Their theories varied from prison-related stigmas to a distant relationship between local governments and state-run prisons. The study challenges research from the 1980s that showed no economic drawbacks to prison towns. Leaders in Iowa have cast doubt on the study. 'It couldn't be anything further from the truth, as far as our local facility,' said Rick Allely, economic development director in Clarinda. The ISU study analyzed the economies of 176 towns in 48 states where prisons were built. Researchers compared them to towns with similar populations and poverty rates. In Iowa, Clarinda was included among towns with 10,000 or fewer people. Fort Dodge and Newton were part of a related ISU study a year ago that found similar economic trends. The two cities have seen less growth in jobs, wages, retail sales and businesses than their non-prison counterparts, ISU researchers say. People, businesses and tax revenue disappeared from rural towns when the economy soured in the 1980s. Policy-makers urged town leaders to look beyond farming for new industry. At the same time, prison populations skyrocketed, partly because of tougher criminal sentences and a crackdown on drugs. A 1980 court ruling also banned prison officials from packing inmates into crowded facilities. The formula led to a prison building boom in the 1980s and 1990s. Many rural cities, long resistant to prisons, were first in line. Nearly 70 percent of the 274 new state prisons opened in towns with populations of 10,000 or fewer. Iowa built a prison in Fort Dodge, population 26,000, which opened in 1998. Prisons in Clarinda (5,690) and Newton (15,579) added bigger facilities. Community leaders must study the costs and benefits of prisons before they invest in them, said Terry Besser, an ISU sociology professor who led the study. The study offered theories for the economic lag: Small-town businesses might not be able to meet the prisons' needs for supplies and services; buying decisions might be made at the state level; the prisons might give the community a black eye; and economic benefits might take a long time. Many towns also made huge investments in buildings, roads and tax incentives to attract prisons to their communities. Taxpayers in Fort Dodge put up about $3 million for a new road, generator, storm sewer and 60 acres on the town's southwest edge for the state prison, which opened in 1998. |
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