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HF 570 – Probation, Early Discharge (LSB2443HV)
Staff Contact: Justus Thompson (515.725.2249) justus.thompson@legis.iowa.gov
Fiscal Note Version – New
Description
House File 570 provides that an individual on probation will earn discharge credits, educational
credits, and workforce credits that reduce the individual’s term of probation. The maximum
reduction of the individual’s probation term earned through these credits may not exceed 40.0%
of the probation period imposed. The individual will not be discharged from probation until
probation fees and court debt have been paid or are subject to a payment plan. The
Department of Corrections (DOC) will adopt administrative rules.
The Bill provides that at least twice per year, an individual’s probation officer must provide the
individual with an accounting of the individual’s accrued discharge credits, educational credits,
and workforce credits.
The Bill requires the DOC to make publicly available an annual report by December 1 related to
discharge credits, educational credits, and workforce credits; the total number of supervision
days reduced; and the number of defendants who terminated probation early.
The Bill takes effect July 1, 2026 (FY 2027).
Background
According to Iowa Code section 907.1, probation is the procedure under which a defendant,
against whom a judgment of conviction of a public offense has been or may be entered, is
released by the court subject to supervision by a resident of the State or by a
Community-Based Corrections (CBC) judicial district.
Under Iowa Code section 907.9, at any time that the court or the probation officer determines
that the purposes of probation have been fulfilled and probation fees and court debt have been
paid, the court or the probation officer may order the discharge of a person from probation. The
probation officer must have the approval of the CBC district director and notify the sentencing
court and the county attorney who prosecuted the case. The sentencing judge may order a
hearing on its own motion, or must order a hearing upon the request of the county attorney, for
the review of the discharge. Following the hearing, the court must approve or rescind the
discharge. If a hearing is not ordered within 30 days, the person on probation must be
discharged.
Fiscal Note
Fiscal Services Division 2
Figure 1 shows the average length of stay on probation by offense class.
Figure 1 — FY 2024 Average LOS on Probation
Assumptions
• The following will not change over the projection period: charge, conviction, and sentencing
patterns and trends; prisoner length of stay (LOS); revocation rates; plea bargaining; and
other criminal justice system policies and practices.
• A lag effect of six months is assumed from the effective date of this Bill to the date of first
entry of affected offenders into the correctional system.
• Marginal costs for county jails cannot be estimated due to a lack of data. For purposes of
this analysis, the marginal cost for county jails is assumed to be $50 per day.
• The marginal cost per day of probation is $7.68.
• The DOC will incur costs for programming the Iowa Corrections Offender Network (ICON)
system to calculate and program the credit requirements and to create a report to
summarize credits. The DOC estimates that it will incur approximately $383,000 in one-time
programming costs for the generation of public reports detailing the number of defendants
on probation who earned discharge credits, educational credits, and workforce credits that
year.
Cost related to additional staff time are calculated using the following assumptions:
• There are approximately 29,800 individuals who are supervised on probation by the DOC
each year.
• The discharge credit, educational credit, and workforce credit will require probation officer
time to verify compliance with the terms of probation, verify education status, and verify
employment status.
• The DOC reports that each credit will require 1.0 additional hour of probation officer time
per individual per year to perform the necessary verification, for a total of 3.0 hours per
individual.
• The DOC reports that it will take approximately 0.5 hours of probation officer time per
individual per year to provide each individual with an accounting of credits accrued.
• For this estimate, the hourly rate for a probation officer, including benefits, is $53.14,
which is the salary and benefit midpoint for Probation and Parole Officers.
Offense Class LOS (Months)
Class B Felony (Persons) 80.1
Class B Felony (Nonpersons) 25.5
Class B Felony (Sex) 168.5
Class C Felony (Persons) 37.8
Class C Felony (Nonpersons) 16.9
Class C Felony (Sex) 55.6
Class D Felony (Persons) 18.7
Class D Felony (Nonpersons) 13.1
Class D Felony (Sex) 24.0
Aggravated Misdemeanor (Persons) 9.5
Aggravated Misdemeanor (Nonpersons) 8.7
Aggravated Misdemeanor (Sex) 11.4
Serious Misdemeanor N/A 3
Correctional Impact
The correctional impact cannot be determined as it is unknown how many individuals would be
eligible to receive probation credits. Refer to the Legislative Services Agency (LSA) memo
addressed to the General Assembly, Cost Estimates Used for Correctional Impact Statements,
dated January 13, 2025, for information related to the correctional system.
Minority Impact
The minority impact of HF 570 cannot be estimated because the effect on the LOS of individuals
on probation cannot be determined. Of the individuals on probation in FY 2024, 69.5% were
White, 17.6% were Black, and 12.9% were other races. Iowa’s population is 85.6% White, 3.8%
Black, and 5.6% other races. Refer to the LSA memo addressed to the General Assembly,
Minority Impact Statement, dated January 13, 2025, for information related to minorities in the
criminal justice system.
Fiscal Impact
The fiscal impact of the change in individuals’ LOS on probation under HF 570 cannot be
estimated.
According to the DOC, HF 570 is estimated to increase the workload for probation officers to
verify eligibility for discharge credits, education credits, and employment credits for supervised
clients. Programming enhancement and maintenance expenses would be covered through
existing internal DOC resources from the Iowa Corrections Offender Network appropriation but
would require each prison and district to contribute a portion of their local budgets. Review and
validation of credits are estimated to require an additional 49.0 full-time equivalent (FTE)
positions. The estimated cost is approximately $5.9 million in FY 2027, which includes
approximately $383,000 in one-time programming costs, and approximately $5.5 million
beginning in FY 2028 and each year thereafter.
Figure 2 — Annual Costs to the DOC Under HF 572
Sources
Department of Corrections
Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP), Department of Management (DOM)
/s/ Jennifer Acton
March 19, 2025
Doc ID 1523512
The fiscal note for this Bill was prepared pursuant to Joint Rule 17 and the Iowa Code. Data used in developing this
fiscal note is available from the Fiscal Services Division of the Legislative Services Agency upon request.
www.legis.iowa.gov Annual Offenders
Served
Increased Hourly
Workload RequiredHourly Pay
FY 2027
Total
FY 2028
Total
Discharge Credits 29,811 1.0 53.1$ 1,584,157$ 1,584,157$
Educational Credits 29,811 1.0 53.1$ 1,584,1571,584,157
Workforce Credits 29,811 1.0 53.1$ 1,584,1571,584,157
Discharge Credit Review 29,811 0.5 53.1$ 792,078 792,078
Report Generation -- 80.0 53.1$ 4,251 4,251
Programming Costs -- -- -- 383,250 --
Total 5,932,049$ 5,548,799$