Iowa State Penitentiary

The Iowa State Penitentiary (ISP) is an Iowa Department of Corrections maximum security prison for men located in the Lee County, Iowa, community of Fort Madison. This facility should not be confused with the Historical Iowa State Penitentiary, which was shut down in 2015 after being open for 175 years. The HISP itself was a 550-person maximum security unit. Also on the complex was a John Bennett Correctional Center - a 169-person medium security unit. The HISP included two minimum-security farms with about 170 people who were located within a few miles of the main complex. The complex also had a ten-person multiple care unit, and a 120-bed special-needs unit for prisoners with mental illness or other diseases that require special medical care. In total, there were about 950 inmates and 510 staff members.

The current Iowa State Penitentiary remains in the same city as the HISP, the community of Fort Madison, but is simply on a different property about a mile away up the road. The current ISP is now the only functioning Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, as the HISP was shut down in 2015 when all of the inmates were moved. ISP has the facilities to hold a maximum of 760 inmates, who are dispersed into several different units, including two that are used for general population inmates, one that is used for inmates in restricted housing, and a medical unit. ISP offers many opportunities for the incarcerated individuals, including opportunities in gaining an education through the local community college, Southeastern Community College, and apprenticeship opportunities through the United States Department of Labor. Inmates also have access to numerous recreational activities, including cabinetry and woodworking.