IA- Iowa Supreme Court upholds sex offender treatment requirement for prisoners

6-19-2009 Iowa:

The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a requirement that a convicted sex offender attend a treatment program to be eligible to get time off his sentence for good behavior. Jordan Holm was sentenced to prison for a maximum of ten years in November of 2003 for third-degree sexual abuse.

In 2005 the Iowa Legislature updated the Iowa code from 2001 to say that a sex offender who refused to enter a treatment program would not be eligible to earn time off their sentence. Holm was informed of this change in 2005, but signed a form refusing to enter a program.

Holm would have been eligible to get out of prison on April 9th, 2008 if he had agreed to go into the treatment program. After refusing the program, his tentative date to get out of the Mt. Pleasant prison is now April 9th, 2010.

Holm appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court saying he did not receive due process and the ruling on earned days should not apply to him retroactively. The Supreme Court ruled the 2005 change merely clarified the 2001 law and does not violate the prohibitions against retroactive -- or what're called "ex post facto laws" -- contained in the U.S. and Iowa Constitutions.

They also found that Holm received sufficient due process. ..Source.. by Darwin Danielson