Glossary

A

Absconder

A person under community supervision whose whereabouts are unknown because they left without permission and stopped reporting to their supervising officer.

ACA

American Correctional Association. A professional organization that publishes national standards for correctional agencies and accredits agencies and facilities that meet them.

Administrative Law Judge

A hearing officer who conducts disciplinary hearings for incarcerated individuals and decides whether a rule violation occurred and what sanction applies.

Approved AI Tool Register

The list, kept by the Department's IT Security lead, of AI tools approved for Department use and the highest data classification each tool is approved for.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Software that performs tasks normally requiring human judgment, such as generating text, images, audio or code, summarizing information, or producing predictions, scores or recommendations from data.

Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR)

A camera system that captures images of vehicle license plates and converts them to text so they can be compared against hotlists or other records.

B

Board of Parole

The Iowa Board of Parole, the body that decides whether incarcerated individuals are released on parole or work release and sets the conditions of that release.

C

Case Plan

An individualized plan, built from risk and needs assessments, that sets the programs, services and goals for a person in custody or under supervision.

CBC

Community-Based Corrections. The probation, parole, pretrial and residential services delivered by Iowa's judicial district departments of correctional services.

Chemical Agent

A substance such as oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray used to gain control of a person or situation, subject to use-of-force policy.

CJIS

Criminal Justice Information Services. The FBI division whose CJIS Security Policy sets the minimum security requirements for accessing, storing and sending criminal justice information.

Classification

The process of assessing an incarcerated individual's risk and needs to assign a custody level, housing, programs and work.

Commissary

The facility store where incarcerated individuals buy approved food, hygiene and other items using funds in their trust account.

Contraband

Any item that is prohibited by law or policy, or that is permitted but possessed in an unauthorized amount, place or manner.

Correctional Officer

A sworn or certified staff member responsible for the care, custody and control of incarcerated individuals in an institution.

Count

A scheduled or emergency procedure in which staff physically verify the number and location of every incarcerated individual in a facility.

Critical Incident

An event that seriously threatens the safety of staff, incarcerated individuals or the public, or the security of a facility, such as a death, escape, riot or hostage situation.

Custody Level

The degree of supervision and security an incarcerated individual requires, such as minimum, medium or maximum, as set through classification.

D

Detainer

A request from another jurisdiction or agency to hold a person, or to be notified before the person's release, so they can be taken into that jurisdiction's custody.

Discharge

The end of the department's legal authority over a person because the sentence or supervision term has expired or been terminated.

Disciplinary Report

A written report documenting an alleged rule violation by an incarcerated individual, which starts the disciplinary process.

Due Process

The procedural protections, such as notice and an opportunity to be heard, owed to a person before a sanction or loss of liberty is imposed.

E

Earned Time

Credit applied to an eligible incarcerated individual's sentence that reduces the time served, as provided by Iowa law and department policy.

Electronic Monitoring

Use of GPS or radio-frequency equipment to track the location or presence of a person under supervision.

Escape

Leaving, or failing to return to, lawful custody without authorization.

F

facial recognition

Technology that identifies or verifies a person by analyzing the features of their face in an image or video.

false match

An alert in which the AI system wrongly matches a vehicle, plate or person to a hotlist entry or record.

Furlough

Authorized temporary absence of an incarcerated individual from a facility for a specific purpose, such as a family emergency or medical care.

G

Generative AI

AI that creates new content, such as text, images, audio or code, in response to a prompt. Chatbots and writing assistants are examples.

Grievance

A formal written complaint by an incarcerated individual about a policy, condition, action or decision, handled through the department's grievance procedure.

H

HIPAA

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The federal law, and its Privacy and Security Rules, that protect the privacy and security of individually identifiable health information.

Hotlist

A list of license plates or vehicle descriptions that an AI traffic monitoring system checks captured data against to generate alerts.

Human Review

A documented review by a qualified staff member who has the authority and the information to change or reject an AI tool's output before it is used.

I

ICAOS

Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision. The body that administers the Interstate Compact rules for transferring supervision of probationers and parolees between states.

ICON

Iowa Corrections Offender Network. The department's statewide information system for records on people in institutions and under community supervision.

Incarcerated Individual

A person committed to the custody of the Department of Corrections and housed in a correctional institution.

Intermediate Sanction

A graduated response to a supervision violation, short of revocation, such as increased reporting, curfew, electronic monitoring or a short residential stay.

Interstate Compact

The Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision, the agreement among the states that governs transferring and supervising probationers and parolees across state lines.

Iowa Code chapter 22

Iowa's public records law, which sets the public's right to examine and copy government records and lists the records that may be kept confidential.

J

Judicial District Department of Correctional Services

One of Iowa's eight district departments that provide community-based correctional services, including probation, parole, pretrial release and residential facilities.

L

litigation hold

A legal instruction to preserve records that may be relevant to pending or reasonably anticipated litigation, suspending their normal deletion.

Lockdown

A temporary restriction of movement in all or part of a facility to restore or maintain security.

M

machine learning

A type of artificial intelligence in which software learns patterns from data, rather than following only fixed rules, to make detections or predictions.

Mandatory Minimum

A minimum period of a sentence that must be served before the person is eligible for parole or work release, as set by statute.

MCP

Model Context Protocol. An open standard that lets an AI assistant connect to outside tools and data sources, such as Department systems, through a common interface.

Medication-Assisted Treatment

Treatment for substance use disorder that combines FDA-approved medications with counseling and behavioral therapies. Also called MAT.

O

OCIO

Office of the Chief Information Officer. The State of Iowa office that sets information technology and security standards for state agencies under Iowa Code chapter 8B.

P

Parole

Conditional release of an incarcerated individual before the sentence expires, granted by the Board of Parole, with supervision in the community.

Parole Officer

A community corrections staff member who supervises people released on parole and enforces the conditions of release.

Personal Information

An individual's name combined with data such as a Social Security number, driver's license number or financial account number, as defined in Iowa Code chapter 715C, whose unauthorized disclosure requires breach notice.

post orders

Written instructions describing the duties, responsibilities and procedures for a specific security post or assignment.

PREA

Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. The federal law, and the national standards issued under it, for preventing, detecting and responding to sexual abuse and sexual harassment in confinement.

Presentence Investigation

An investigation and report prepared for the court before sentencing that describes the defendant's background, offense and risk, and may recommend a sentence. Also called a PSI.

Pretrial Release

Supervised release of a defendant before trial, with conditions set by the court.

Probation

A court-ordered sentence served in the community under supervision and conditions instead of, or in addition to, incarceration.

Probation Officer

A community corrections staff member who supervises people on probation and enforces the conditions set by the court.

Prompt

Any text, file, image or audio given to an AI tool as input.

Prompt Injection

An attack in which instructions hidden in a document, message, web page or other content try to make an AI tool take actions or give answers the user did not intend.

R

Reentry

The planning and services that prepare an incarcerated individual to return to the community, starting at admission and continuing after release.

Residential Facility

A community-based correctional facility where people on probation, parole, work release or other status live under supervision while working or attending treatment.

Restitution

Money a court orders a person to pay to victims, or to others, to compensate for losses caused by the offense.

Restraints

Devices such as handcuffs, leg irons and belly chains used to limit a person's movement, subject to policy on when and how they may be applied.

Restrictive Housing

Housing that separates an incarcerated individual from the general population and limits time out of cell, for disciplinary, administrative or protective reasons.

Revocation

The termination of probation, parole or work release because of a violation, which may return the person to custody.

Risk Assessment

A validated tool used to estimate a person's likelihood of reoffending and to identify the needs that supervision and programming should address.

S

Sally Port

A secure, controlled entryway with two gates or doors, only one of which opens at a time, used to move vehicles and people into and out of a facility.

Sensitive Incarcerated Individual Data

Any Confidential or Restricted information about an incarcerated individual or a person under community supervision, such as confidential offender records, health records, criminal justice information, PREA and investigative records, and victim information.

Sex Offender Registry

The state registry of people required by law to register because of a sex offense conviction, and to keep their information current.

Special Sentence

An additional period of supervision, beyond the original sentence, required by Iowa law for certain sex offenses.

Suicide Watch

Close or constant observation of a person assessed as at risk of self-harm, with documented checks at set intervals.

System owner

The Warden, District Director or Central Office administrator responsible for an AI traffic monitoring system at their location.

T

Technical Violation

A violation of a condition of supervision that is not a new criminal offense, such as missing appointments or failing a drug test.

Trust Account

An account the facility holds for an incarcerated individual's money, used for commissary, fees, restitution and other approved transactions.

U

Use of Force

Any physical effort, including restraints, chemical agents or other tools, used by staff to compel compliance from an unwilling person.

V

Victim Notification

The process of informing registered victims about changes in an offender's custody or supervision status, such as transfer, release or escape.

Video analytics

Software that automatically analyzes camera footage to detect, count, classify or track vehicles, people or events.

W

Warden

The chief administrator of a correctional institution, responsible for its security, operations and staff.

Work Release

A status in which an incarcerated individual lives in a community residential facility and works in the community under supervision before parole or discharge.

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42 CFR Part 2

The federal regulation that protects the confidentiality of records of substance use disorder treatment programs and limits when they may be disclosed.