{"id":2473,"date":"2026-02-14T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2473"},"modified":"2026-02-14T12:36:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:36:01","slug":"the-rest-of-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2473","title":{"rendered":"The rest of the story"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Almost any curmudgeon from the previous century has heard Paul Harvey say, \u201cAnd now you know — the rest<\/em>\u00a0of the story.\u201d Let\u2019s hear the rest of the story.<\/p>\n

State Republican representatives are flaunting an initiative this year with a serious \u201ctough on crime\u201d agenda. Three Republican legislators have introduced three bills that 1) provide a mandatory minimum 20-year prison sentence without parole for a person convicted of multiple specific crimes (HSB 666<\/a>); 2) \u201ca bill (HSB 641<\/a>) that would make it harder to be released on bail,\u201d and 3) a bill requiring \u201cthe state court administrator to annually collect and publish information about how individual judges handle criminal cases.\u201d \u00a0(HSB 631<\/a>)<\/p>\n

According to Rep. Steven Holt<\/a> (R-Denison), the need for HSB 666 is based upon “a bill that is now sweeping the nation and began in North Carolina, called \u201cIryna\u2019s Bill.\u201d\u201d Rep. Holt stated that he is sick and tired of dangerous criminals being convicted of violent crimes and being released back into society after serving short sentences in prison.<\/p>\n

The rest of the story begins with Iryna Zarutska<\/a>, who was stabbed to death by DeCarlos Brown, Jr., while riding a late-night Blue Line light rail train in Charlotte, NC. Brown was sitting in the seat behind her as she held her phone in her hand. He stabbed her three times and she died within a minute. Would a law like the one Holt introduced prevent this from happening? Probably not.<\/p>\n

Brown had a history of mental illness longer than his criminal record. He had been \u201cstruggling in recent years\u201d with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and suffered hallucinations and paranoia.\u201d He claimed the government had planted a chip in him, and he also believed Iryna was reading his mind.<\/p>\n

Records indicate that Brown has been arrested in at least fourteen cases in less than a decade. Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), North Carolina where this incident occurred, uses pretrial risk assessments prior to sentencing in order to \u201chelp determine the likelihood of a defendant failing to appear in court or reoffending while on release.\u201d Iowa enacted risk assessments as a \u201ctool\u201d several years ago. It goes to show that analysis used to predict the future are inaccurate. What is needed is a thorough follow-up after incarceration to make sure former inmates are continuing with the medication they were taking while imprisoned. Many times, a former inmate will revert back to self-medicating for various reasons: booze is cheaper than medication; booze and drugs are more readily available; and drugs and liquor are more familiar to the addict – a user understands the side effects.<\/p>\n

Iowa has a law that has been gutted over the past many sessions: Minority Impact Statements. A minority impact statement is a significant portion of a fiscal note<\/a> prepared by the Fiscal Division of the nonpartisan Iowa Legislative Services Agency<\/a>.<\/a>\u00a0 In cooperation with the Division<\/a> of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning<\/a> of the Department of Human Rights<\/a>,<\/a> the Fiscal<\/a> Division<\/a> analyzes legislation to determine if the legislation will have any impact on minorities (negative or positive).<\/p>\n

Already, Iowa uses mandatory minimum sentencing for forcible felonies and requires risk assessments in pre-sentencing investigations. Mandatory minimum legislation was developed in the 1990s, and every bill establishing a mandatory minimum had a racial impact statement attached. The minority impact statement helped reduce the percentage of black Iowans in Iowa\u2019s prisons. If this bill (HSB 666) is enacted, the population of black men in prison will be increased, once again.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the Sentencing Project cited an Associated Press finding<\/a> that minority impact statements in Iowa \u201cappear to be having a modest effect.\u201d A review of 61 impact statements issued since 2009 suggests that the policy has been \u201chelping to defeat some legislation that could have exacerbated disparities and providing a smoother path to passage for measures deemed neutral or beneficial to minorities.\u201d https:\/\/apnews.com\/d320d9fdb9794d71b8b6436b808e0b16<\/a><\/p>\n

In a United States Supreme Court case from 2017, Buck v. Davis<\/a>, 580 U.S. 100 (2017), Chief Justice Roberts wrote: “when a jury hears expert testimony that expressly makes a defendant\u2019s race directly pertinent on the question of life or death, the impact of that evidence cannot be measured simply by how much air time it received at trial or how many pages it occupies in the record. Some toxins can be deadly in small doses.\u201d This analogy applies to legislation as well as the courts. Without knowing the consequences of some crimes resulting in incarcerating black men more than other offenders, the small doses become the big overdose.<\/p>\n

One legislator said that Fiscal Notes have the ability to be used to shame legislators into opposing otherwise good legislation.\u00a0 Yes, we agree. And it often depends upon what \u201cotherwise good\u201d means. \u201cOtherwise good\u201d is in the hands of the beholder.<\/p>\n

Enhancing penalties is one of the biggest red herrings in the lawmaking business.\u00a0 It looks like the legislature is doing \u201csomething\u201d to prevent crime from occurring, but it does very little to prevent crime.\u00a0 It places a defendant in prison or jail for a longer period of time. That\u2019s all it can do.<\/p>\n

Even an offender with a mental health problem, especially schizophrenia, will be released sometime after twenty years. Maintaining sanity in a correctional setting does not go well after an inmate with mental health issues is released without parole.<\/p>\n

Consider these facts: <\/strong><\/p>\n