Prison Overview/History
In 1967, the State Legislature authorized the creation of the Iowa
Security and Medical Facility at Oakdale. A modern psychiatric hospital
for the evaluation and treatment of both men and women was built on a
54.4 acre site near Iowa City. When completed in 1969, the building
consisted of three patient units totaling 81 beds. At the time of its
completion, IMCC was considered to be in part of the country-side, away
from the major populations of the cities of Iowa City, Coralville and
North Liberty. Today it is surrounded by the major metropolitan areas
of those three cities. Condos, restaurants and malls are now where our
escape posts used to be located.
In 1984, the facility’s capacity was increased to 300 beds by the
construction of a reception/classification center and the institution
officially became known as “The Iowa Medical and Classification
Center.” The facility provided services both to the DOC offender
population and to the psychiatric hospital units.
In 1990 and 1991, the facility’s capacity was again increased with
the construction of four dormitory units, two for reception and two for
general population.
Renovations to one of the old hospital units renewed 23 beds for a
separate special needs unit in September of 2005, bringing the total
capacity to 528 beds.
We began to renovate our dietary in March 2006 and this was
completed in the fall of 2007. This renovation enabled us to deliver
trays directly to the units instead of having offenders come to the
dining hall.
In July 2007 we opened our Special Needs Unit, which has since been
dedicated as the Lowell D. Brandt Unit, which added another 178 beds
for a total of 706. The planning for this unit began in 1998. The
building contains an outpatient health clinic and offices, three
medical housing units and four celled behavioral units. The celled
behavioral unit includes a therapeutic community unit, a secured
observation unit and two larger units for offenders with mental health
diagnosis.
In total, IMCC has 22 housing units which have multiple specific
functions. In addition, the facility has a warehouse which holds the
recycling program and large equipment. The Power Plant, which houses
the Pharmacy, the DOC File Repository, loading dock, maintenance shops
and power generators, is attached to the main building by way of a
tunnel. Attached to the main building is the administration building
which holds the Warden’s office area, the Business Office, IT and Human
Resources offices in addition to the Training Room and CERT Training
Room.
