(Radio Iowa) – The percentage of people who return to prison in Iowa after being released is the lowest it’s been in the last decade. About a third of people paroled in the past three years have ended up back to prison. The Iowa Department of Corrections says that’s a three percent decrease from last year and it means fewer people are committing new crimes or violating the terms of their supervised parole.

Shannon Magnuson is the lead researcher for a study on Iowa parole by the nonprofit Justice Systems Partners. She says fewer returns could mean Iowa is better preparing people to re-enter the community when they’re paroled. “If you’re seeing a rise of people staying longer in prison and then returning less, then we must be functionally doing something different in prison, or while people are under supervision, that’s keeping them from coming back,” she says.

Beyond regular check-ins with a parole officer, people recently released from prison may have to show they’re employed or have somewhere to live. Magnuson says her research shows there was a 25 percent decrease in people returning to prison in the judicial district that includes central Iowa when the department relaxed those rules. “What we’re seeing in the fifth district was that when we gave people time to tackle one thing at a time, they did better,” she said, “and overall, we see less recidivism as a result.”

There are 22 counties in the fifth judicial district and it includes the cities of Des Moines, Newton, Knoxville, Osceola, Creston and Guthrie Center. (The list of counties in the fifth judicial district include: Adair, Adams, Clarke, Dallas, Decatur, Guthrie, Jasper, Lucas, Madison, Marion, Polk, Ringgold, Taylor, Union, Warren and Wayne.)