Iowa

1. Policy: Iowa Department of Corrections PREA Standards for Adult Prisons and Jails
2. Language:
   1. All inmates shall be assessed during an intake screening and upon transfer to another facility for their risk of being sexually abused by other inmates or sexually abusive toward other inmates.
   2. Intake screening shall ordinarily take place within 72 hours of arrival at the facility.
   3. Such assessments shall be conducted using an objective screening instrument.  
   4. The intake screening shall consider, at a minimum, the following criteria to assess inmates for risk of sexual victimization:
      1. Whether the inmate is or is perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or gender nonconforming.
   5.  In deciding whether to assign a transgender or intersex inmate to a facility for male or female inmates, and in making other housing and programming assignments, the agency shall consider on a case-by-case basis whether a placement would ensure the inmate’s health and safety, and whether the placement would present management or security problems and reassessed at least twice a year.
   6. Transgender and intersex inmates shall be given the opportunity to shower separately from other inmates.
   7. The agency shall not place lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex inmates in dedicated facilities, units, or wings solely on the basis of such identification or status, unless such placement is in a dedicated facility, unit, or wing established in connection with a consent decree, legal settlement, or legal judgment for the purpose of protecting such inmates.

“No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones.”

Nelson Mandela